Don’t expect Final Fantasy 14 to go free-to-play anytime soon, Yoshi-P says
But A Realm Reborn’s already generous trial might include even more in the future
Final Fantasy 14 has “no plans” to go fully free-to-play in the future, its director has said following the rebooted MMO’s 10th anniversary - but the team also doesn’t expect to move onto a new game anytime soon, either.
Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida told Eurogamer that while A Realm Reborn is unlikely to be offered in its entirety for free in the foreseeable future, the game’s infamously generous free trial - which is due to soon be expanded to include its second expansion Stormblood on top of the current offering of the whole of the base game and its first expansion Heavensward - may well be expanded further.
"I believe the free trial will continue to be expanded, but we have no plans of making the client itself free at the moment," Yoshida said.
"Since a huge amount of time and money has been invested in the expansion packages, the revenue from sales of the expansion package itself is still very important in order to continue to make expansions on this scale. We would like to constantly aim for the best on the business side as well to continue making a lot of content to be enjoyed."
Yoshida reflected on A Realm Reborn following its 10th anniversary last month - marking a decade since it salvaged the infamous misfire of the original Final Fantasy XIV, released to overwhelming criticism in 2010 eventually leading to its complete reimagining - and ahead of next summer’s holiday-themed fifth expansion Dawntrail, the first in the game’s post-Hydaelyn-Zodiark arc.
As well as the expected new jobs, story quests and environments, Dawntrail will also bring a major visual overhaul for the game as part of its 7.0 update.
“New grand stories, new jobs, new settings for the adventure; these things are important, but to upgrade the system and to make it possible to do things that were previously impossible are also important,” Yoshida said. “I believe the first graphics update can be seen as part of this category."
As for what the future holds, Yoshida expressed that reaching FF14’s 10-year anniversary had been the team’s original ambition. With that landmark reached, though, the developers don’t plan to leave Eorzea behind just yet - perhaps little surprise, when the game has only continued to see wild success in recent years.
"We don't have plans to move on to a new game as that would be something even more difficult than having the realm be 'reborn'," Yoshida said. "That might change if I am hit with some kind of inspiration, though."