Final Fantasy XIV, like the massive multiplayer online genre as a whole, is in a bit of a crisis. Square Enix’s latest financial results paint a pretty grim picture, with a big decline in revenue from the MMO division, largely led by FFXIV. It’s easy to look at the mixed reception of Dawntrail and pin the blame on the latest expansion, but the path to now has been a lot more complicated than that. And by the same turn, FFXIV’s future is going to be much more complex than simply “fixing” Dawntrail’s mistakes. But it certainly feels like there’s a viable future for the MMO.
Square Enix’s sales decreased by 23 percent, or ¥2.9 billion yen ($19.6 million at the time of writing), and overall operational profits down by 45 percent, or ¥3 billion ($20.3 million), according to its August earnings report. This has led to legions of discourse online among fans, about what FFXIV’s “problem” is. But the real answer is that there isn’t one clean-cut problem or solution, no matter how you read the mixed reviews of Dawntrail on Steam.
