The Washington Post conducted an interview with Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, Final Fantasy XIV producer and director, about the state of the MMORPG and its future. When asked about how long people can expect to see the game supported or new content added, his response suggested more to come. Specifically, Gene Park noted, “Yoshida said ‘Final Fantasy XIV’ may never end, as long as people keep returning.” He also suggested “at least another five years” of content and activities on the PS4, PS5, and PC.
Here is an exact statement from the interview regarding FFXIV’s growth and expansion from Yoshida.
Even now, our CEO is encouraging us to strive for more players and for 30 million adventurers, and he still has future plans for us. Luckily, we don’t see any stopping in our momentum. At one point we thought maybe we might plateau, but fortunately our player base just continues to expand and grow.
In the Washington Post interview, Yoshida noted FFXIV expansions are a priority for the team. He also noted around 30-40% of work on them is spent trying to be innovative. He also mentioned that when it comes to live service games and MMOs, that it is a good idea to have “at least two years worth of plans already made when you’re starting out” and said that can act as a “base foundation” and help with meeting “realistic goals.”
FFXIV first debuted on the PC back in 2010. It was later relaunched in 2013 on the PC and PS3 as FFXIV: A Realm Reborn under Yoshida. Square Enix released three expansions since then, with the fourth Endwalker expansion about to appear in Fall 2021. As for the company’s other MMORPG, FFXI debuted in 2002, is still running on PCs, and will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2022.
Final Fantasy XIV is available for the PlayStation 4 and PC. The FFXIV PS5 open beta will begin on April 13, 2021.
