FFXI Players Would Return If Sub Was Cheaper/Combined With FFXIV Or If A "Classic" Version Dropped According To SE Survey

Unless you still actively play Final Fantasy XI, you'd be forgiven for not knowing about a number of additions the almost 23 year-old MMORPG made in 2024. Obviously the crossover in FFXIV was a big step and it really made me personally happy to see Jeuno made in a modern graphics engine.

On the FFXI side directly, new servers have been added, the gamepad improvements previously launched have been expanded upon, and new Master Trial content and a level 9 version of Besieged dropped. Sure, it may not sound like a lot, but for an MMO that isn't technically in development anymore, it's always good to see things still improving.

In a New Year's letter from the team, Producer/Director Yoji Fujito not only recaps the year, but also looks forward to 2025. Now here's where things get a bit interesting (although totally predictable for those of us that play or cover both Final Fantasy MMORPGs.).

The look forward mentions things like more solo-friendly content options, continued graphics improvements, improved auto-grouping, and a reduction in the steps required to upgrade late-game gear to make things easier on new or returning players.

Where do these suggestions come from? Why, a survey that SE sent out in November, actually. With almost 14k respondents, the team shares some interesting survey results divided into Japan respondents and Global respondents. Roughly half of the respondents are current players.

Some of the stats fall into the "that's neat info" category. Examples include the fact that the largest portion of Japanese respondents were between 40 and 50 years old, with the largest group of global respondents being 30 to 40. Maybe not surprising for an older MMO, but neat nonetheless. Other neat stats include almost 70% of respondents logging in at least 2-3 times per week and gaming sessions being over 1 hour long for over 95% of those that responded.

On the "solo gameplay" front, while FFXI has made massive improvements on this front through the years (mainly out of necessity), there's clearly still work to be done here as over half the players responding say they play solo, and the number of respondents that actually play with random players (i.e. not solo or dedicated groups) is in the single-digit percentages. Yeah, play with friends, most still playing already are and looking for a group may be hard if you aren't.

It should make the team feel good that most respondents are "Satisfied" or better on the content and login campaign front.

My favorite part of the survey, though, reveals something anyone that plays the game (or did) or reports on the game already knows. When talking specifically to lapsed players, the team asked what would bring them back to the game. The number one answer for Japan-based players was a change in their life, however the global audience simply said "make it cheaper monthly, or offer a bundled FFXIV subscription." The "other" category on this question forced the team to look at individual comments and there they found a strong calling for a "Classic" version of FFXI, meaning a version from when the game's level cap was 75 and, ironically given the solo discussion earlier, a party was basically required for advancement.

Neither of these surprise me, but it's interesting to hear the team finally acknowledge them, particularly the subscription one. While the team doesn't mention any specific action as a result of the survey yet, they do talk up this survey as being the most comprehensive version of their player surveys from the past and they do say, "By disclosing this data upfront, we hope to use these results to help guide our future development efforts for the game in a way that can hopefully satisfy as many players as possible."

Now, knowing that SE fully acknowledges some of the above points AND they intend to use this feedback to guide their work...will 2025 see any movement on these fronts? One can hope!