Final Fantasy XIV Mac Sales Suspended, Refunds Offered
Oh dear
What happens when you release a wonky version of a game with performance problems? Acknowledging its shortcomings and temporarily pulling it from sale is a nice start, and freely offering and encouraging refunds is a good follow-up.
Where Warner Bros. forgot the second part with the shambles of Batman: Arkham Knight, Square Enix have delivered with the Mac version of Final Fantasy XIV [official site]. There was a mix-up and they released system requirements suggesting it'd run better than it does, they say. It still might've been better if they hadn't released it at all, knowing it still needed more work.
Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida said in a blog post on Friday:
"I believe that the biggest problem with the Mac version release was the significant discrepancy between the performance of the product our development team produced and the expectations our customers had for it, which was due to the lack of information available on our product when sales commenced, as well as other issues."
They had been working up until release to improve performance, and "in the chaos leading up to the multi-platform launch of our expansion" they listed incorrect system requirements. Yoshida adds:
"Because of this situation, many of you purchased a product which your Mac hardware could not run at even the minimum system requirements, resulting in insufficient performance, for which many of you have expressed your dissatisfaction. Had we provided accurate information beforehand, I know many of you would not have purchased the Mac version, which is why we decided to offer full refunds. Once again, I apologize."
Until they put together an announcement with more accurate system requirements and a better idea of the performance to expect, Square Enix have temporarily pulled the game from sale. While they're continuing to work on improving Mac performance, they say it'll never run as well as the Windows version. The post goes into detail on technical reasons behind that, if you're curious.
It is a bit of a howler from Squeenix. The initial launch of FFXIV was shoddy enough that they suspended charging subscription fees while reworking it, and ended the world before relaunching the far superior new version with the new subtitle A Realm Reborn. It's a shame this Mac launch has been wonky after such a strong recovery. Come on, you big sillies.