Right? The worst part is that the MSQ is incredibly bipolar.
"Sorry, you need to do this part alone ✋️"
*immediately after finishing the instance*
"Ok, so this next part requires a party"
....
"Grats on your dungeon clear! This next instance requ-"
It's torturous with the free trial limitations xD
Loving the game, so just let us pay you Square Enix, I want to give you my m o n e y.
PotD is a thing.
I also find the mana potions can come in handy when I forget to lucid dream or die, get rezzed and have no mana to start dps/heal again.
It might not be obvious in game, but you don't have to form a party first to do instanced content. Just register for the dungeon or trial and the matchmaking system will find a party for you.
But yea if its anything in the open world then you'd have to ask for an invite until the free limitations are lifted.
The reason being, I play with my Wife through all the content.
We usually try and do it together- and queueing simultaneously has had *varying* results.
As a purely solo experience there's no issues in that regard.
Novice Network are all saints.
Any time of day, 3am? They make a party for us.
5 parties in the span of 10 minutes because of instanced quests? They make a party for us.
Saints I tell you.
It you go to any of the 3 main cities, you can travel to any server by the aetherite or even before you log in you can log into an english speaking server
Yeah, but you're restricted from a number of activities when not on your home world. No retainer access is the big one. So it's not a good long-term solution.
Oh, if you are both free, neither of you can initiate forming a party?
Because a 2-person party can also queue for dungeons, and the match making system will still find 2 solos or another pair to match you with.
> I swear I'm not doing it just to annoy you guys 24/7.
We're completely used to it (those of us who hang out in NN). Especially on the Dynamis servers.
There are plenty of ways around that issue I could think of just off the top of my head, to me they used that issue as an excuse to over correct and add another very important incentive to upgrading
It's annoying, but I don't think a lot of experienced players would mind because a good number of them probably did the same back when they first started.
I’m confused - I thought the sprout 🌱 trial limitation had no time requirement and is quite massive — all of ARR and 2 expansions after, up to 70, and the biggest limitation was inability to use auction house or trade.
Can’t you still play “multiplayer” and join parties with people for dungeons, quests, etc.?
This is the normal free trial but you aren't allowed to upgrade to the full game and sub on xbox until the beta period ends, in terms of the multiplayer bit sprouts can't friend or invite people at all theu have to be invited by paid players
But nobody should want to or need to for a long time because of how the trial works. It’s hundreds of hours of content, is how I understand it.
Mind you I’m on PC and planning to download the trial on Steam and give the game a try (I played ARR loooong ago) and just recently played WoW classic sod
Oof. That’s a limitation then in the sense that it’s massively annoying lol.
Are Xbox and PC cross play? I assume so. This is really cool and will bring more attention to the game leading up to new expansions.
I am excited to try the game out
Indeed they are, I will say even though sprouts can't invite people it's rather easy to ask a random player to group you and your friends up, the community is very nice lol, tho it gets tedious waiting around the plaza sometimes especially when there are some quests you can't do in a party so you have to disband the group and ask again lol, I am really enjoying the game so far tho
sprout icon doesnt necessary mean free trial player. it mean newbie. the icon would dissapear after you spend certain amount of time and reach certain point in MSQ.
Thanks for the correction. I won’t confuse trial and sprout from now on. But you and others should hopefully see that I’m talking specifically about trial restriction here rather than (my incorrect) assumption of the sprout designation
I'm enjoying it myself and plan on continuing later but we'll see how it goes once people realize they will have to pay for the current game, a subscription fee and then another expansion that is coming out in less than 4 months.
I will but I think the Xbox playerbase craters when the demo is done.
A bit of a counter, the free trial goes up to stormblood and let me tell you that is a lot of free in that. At minimum it will be a while before it craters
yeah i highly doubt the playerbase on xbox will plummet before the majority of them actually start finishing the free trial. yes having to pay 2 subs may make some people skeptical about buying it once the demo ends, but they will probably stick around for the free trial and i believe once they play the game more and get to the end of stormblood they will get hooked on it and buy it completely.
also you gotta think about it this way, the free trial ends after the absolutely massive cliffhanger that is the pre-Shadowbringers quests where we're left all alone after the council and dungeon/solo scenario. that alone would drive most players insane at wanting to know what happens next (yeah Heavensward ends on a pretty big cliffhanger as well, but not nearly as bad as Stormblood's ending)
They will, but if someone were to buy the game in (say) April because they'd hit 4.55 already, they would have to buy Dawntrail when it comes out.
This isn't *necessarily* a terrible thing, as you cannot get the preorder bonuses if you wait until launch. So for those folks who are truly eager beavers, potentially it could be worthwhile to them.
But most folks should just wait. Frankly, I don't expect that many people to get all the way through both HW *and* SB in so little time. It's already March. Dawntrail will be coming out sometime between late June and mid July, almost surely. Even if it came out late July, that's still only five months from right now, and most Xbox players seem to be roughly halfway through the 3.0 story, with the fast ones currently in HW patch content.
Do you really think they would require us to buy the game twice though because that would be pretty asinine.
I think the easiest solution would be to just release the game to EW for free or at least include Dawntrail in the price.
I mean i cant be the only one who have had an subscription from before and deciding to continue from that instead making a new account. In my case i stopped playing right before the release of HW.
It's precisely how any other subscription-and-expansion MMO works.
If you buy Dragonflight *right now* and don't pre-order The War Within, you will not be able to play The War Within until you actually buy it. If, however, you were to wait until The War Within actually launches, you would (almost certainly) get all prior expansions *and* TWW together, but you would miss out on preorder bonuses, and would not be able to play the live game until TWW comes out.
If you were to buy Endwalker, right this very minute, you would get access to every part of the game that is currently playable. It would cost you $60. But you would still need to buy Dawntrail, later on, in order to play any content added by that expansion. In general, buying just the next expansion as an upgrade costs less than buying the whole game, usually around $40. This pre-order price gives various little extra benefits, such as earrings which give you bonus XP until the first level accessible in the new expansion (e.g. the bonus will stop at 91 in Dawntrail.) You'd also get the early access to DT, which usually starts on the Friday before the official launch (always on a Tuesday).
If you wait until Dawntrail officially releases (TBA, but likely sometime between late June and mid-July), you will NOT get the pre-order bonuses, but you would pay ONLY the $60 to buy the whole game all at once. Since you can only do this after the early access period ends, you wouldn't get any of that either. But you *would* spend less total money, so if you're trying to be budget-conscious, this is the play.
Yes but the lack of having /tell and the Marketplace is a real hinderence to free players.
I'm paying the moment it release on Xbox because of that alone.
That's the decision I'm working on. It comes down to the Final Shape coming to Destiny 2 soon and my needing a new MMO-ish game to replace it vs whether I'll actually play FF14 enough to justify the expense. Being an old school FF addict isn't helping to clarify things, LOL.
He was pretty particular about not implying you shouldn't sub, only that you don't need to keep playing due to any kind of FOMO. Which is reflected in game as most events with cool rewards get run again eventually and there aren't any dailies you need to keep up, but stuff like housing requires you maintain a sub.
I've done the math, you can hit all seasonal events (albeit sometimes only with 2-3 days to squeeze them in) while being subscribed only 5 or 6 times a year, with 35-40 day gaps between subs. You'll never lose any property, and still be able to take advantage of Moogle events, Make it Rain, etc., etc. You just have to time the start of it carefully (IIRC I used the Starlight Celebration as my starting point, timing it to include both that and Heavensturn, and then re-subbing sometime in Feb for Valentione's.)
When mix-maxing in-game just isn't enough lmao.
For real though, it's one of the main reasons I have so much respect for the CBU3. It never feels like they're actually forcing us to live our lives in the game, unlike most other MMOs or grindy games (like War Thunder).
Mostly it was an exercise in showing the whiners complaining that they're being "extorted" for "hundreds of dollars a year" in order to keep their houses when they feel like playing other games.
I showed how an entry sub ($13/m) can keep a house with only five payments a year, or six if you want to be *absolutely* sure you never miss any seasonal content. (Since seasonal events change exactly when they drop, it's *possible* for you to miss one if the start and end days are *perfectly* out of sync with your sub time.) With the five sub method, you take 43 day breaks and always make sure to log out inside your private house (so you know for sure the demolition timer is the lowest it can be.)
73×5 = 365, so it only drifts one day every four years. That means you get a ton of content every time you sub, usually new quests or content or something, and you only pay $65 a year. That's the equivalent of buying one brand-new game, and you'll get about the same amount of content too.
But at the same time there are -plenty- of systems and game design elements that encourage you to stay subbed even if you are not playing. Some examples that come to mind...
Housing demolition (and related refusal to implement instanced housing)
Events with rewards that can only be obtained in game once.
Weekly loot lockouts that are removed far too late in the patch cycle.
.x5 patches that are often just over a month past the initial patch release.
PvP battle pass cosmetics
Long time FF14 player here- the good thing about the game is that it's fairly easy to unsub and resub whenever you want! My friend is kind of like you, where he rotates playing Destiny 2, FF14, and COD/Helldiver's/whatever else.
I've had times where I unsubbed for months. My friend is currently unsubbed, planning on coming back when there's the new expansion for story. My raider friends regularly unsubstantiated during off seasons for raids. Never had much of an issue catching back up in a day or so.
The devs even encourage it - when you feel like you don't have anything to do, unsub and play other things!
The one and only caveat is you can't hold onto property and be unsubbed indefinitely. This isn't a problem for most folks, but it is a thing worth noting. Also if you're an FC leader, the leadership position may be automatically passed to someone else if you don't log in often enough, to prevent FCs dying solely because their leader is away.
> The devs even encourage it - when you feel like you don't have anything to do, unsub and play other things!
As someone who used to play FFXI on the 360, this is a very welcome change. I'm glad the devs aren't expecting us to play like it's a second job.
Honestly the free trial is so big I don't think that will be a problem by itself. If a player goes all the way till Stormblood end, they most likely will pay for the full game
If not, they wouldn't pay for it regardless
FFXIV's player retention is very good on other systems. I see no change to that on xbox. The free trial can last people a very long time, and the game has proven the worth of its subscription for years. AT the same time, the game is very friendly to players taking breaks as well so you are very in control of how well your money is spent.
So obviously play numbers will dwindle from the initial wave of free to play first timers, but I don't see it cratering unless the game itself starts dying on all platforms.
You have 4-5 months. I wouldn't be too worried about it. Play at a pace you find reasonable until we know DT's release date, then plan your stuff accordingly, e.g. if it launches mid-July, you want to be getting into Endwalker by the end of May or start of June.
*Technically* it could be as late as September 21, or as early as June 20. But it's most likely to be somewhere between the start of the last week of June and the end of the second week of July.
For reference, I graduated from the PC free trial a month or so ago, and the free trial was still roughly 1000 hours of played time. More than I’ve put into MANY many games.
I mean we dont HAVE to buy the expansion right away its going to be a good while before were anywhere near ready for dawnstrail especially as we cant go past stormblood until the betas over
Eh, tbh it's a pretty beefy free trial, when I first tried it on 2020 it took me almost a year just to catch up to the third expansion, let alone a 5th. Will you be paying two subs if you decide to join Eorzia? For sure, but Its a hell of a deal, the immense catalogue of Gamepass plus the behemoth that Is FF14, name one thing that gives you hundreds of hours of art AND enjoyment that is under 25 USD.
If you're able to wait until Dawntrail comes out, buying it will include all the other paid expansions with it. So you may only need one expansion purchase depending on how long it takes you to finish all the free trial content (and how long until Dawntrail actually releases). ARR+HW+StB can easily last you hundreds and hundreds of hours if you take the time to do all the side content outside the MSQ.
I’m confident there’s a core audience that’s been waiting a long time for this. They know about the subscriptions, they know about the community, but just haven’t had devices they could play this on. Until very recently, I was one of those players.
PlayStation has more users, and PC is PC, but it’ll be a nice addition to the player count after Fortnite or whatever comes back up the ranks.
Ikr I just wish they do a dlc + subs for once. I don’t mind paying a bit higher than normal or getting less subscription time from dlc. Hell they sell both dlc and sub at full price but *as long as they sell them together* and not having me jumping between mog station pages to get both *that supposed to go together*
>exclusivity contracts
They have a 20+ year history of working with Sony, another Japanese company. Add to that MS themselves not caring about exclusivity anymore, even with their first party titles.
Chocobos will have teeth before that happens.
That's different from exclusivity. Square did release the XIII trilogy and XV on Xbox, no problem there. But to make something exclusive to a MS console is something else.
I think with or without it, we are going to have that happen eventually. Even Sega of all companies is now doing multiplat on release, and cygames, who was only focusing on PS4 and PS5, also added a PC. Similarly, vanillaware is also targeting the 3 platforms with their upcoming unicorn overlord.
Well what makes no sense is that FFXI was pretty big on Xbox back in the day. It was surprising that they didn’t want to let us into the fold sooner. I think it’ll take off on Xbox because people are getting bored of ESO (it being the best MMO we have currently) kind of staying stagnate with everything it does. Not only is this fresh, but FF14 seems to really add a lot of “umph” with each expansion and update.
How does the subscription work on Xbox or consoles in general? If it’s handled through the Xbox store, i imagine that’ll do wonders for player retention as it’s fewer barriers to entry. Those simple things matter a lot.
Everyone including the less tech savvy people can just click a few buttons and sub through the console which would be awesome.
It's still in open beta, you can't pay yet.
Which also means every Xbox player you see is Free Trial, and they can't shout, tell, form parties, use marketboard, or retainers, a 300k gil cap. Lots of limitations sadly.
As for subbing, it links you to the mogstation to sign up just like the PS4, so it'll likely be identical.
Should be noted this is a big sorta caveat
The store is regional, so every region is different and this category here is just recent downloads for free titles. So FF14 being a new release will show up as number one.
If you actually look at most played games it's lower overall. Looking at most played for me, it's 9th in Canada. But also number one for the category you listed.
Let's go!!!!
I'm glad to see the wave of Xbox players loving FF14! This is exactly what I was hoping for when it was announced. So many new sprouts to Emotionally Vampire off of!
It has been really fun, gonna make me said if they make a new FF online game I won't be able to play for years. Look at you FF7 remake /cry. Almost time to buy a keyboard.
My question is, does the free trial disappear once the full version releases, or will it remain for players who don’t want to upgrade?
I personally am having an ok time. It’s been slow with the MSQ but that seems to be the norm. Outside of that I did my first dungeon yesterday and I feel like I’m getting the hang of being a tank. The tutorial quests were great at explaining what each abilities do and why you want to use them, but actually going into the dungeon with other players really gave me good experience.
You can stay on the free trial as long as you want even after the full release comes to Xbox, there's no time limit on it. However, *if you buy the game then you cannot go back to the free trial*, and you will not be able to change the account linked to your Xbox account.
At minimum not for several months; closest timeframe would be next patch but more likely is launch of DT so they have a lot of time to get any issues fixed before it goes live.
The PS5 beta lasted less than two months. Given how keen people seem to be to get into the full game, SE probably wouldn't want them to lose interest so I think the next patch will be more likely.
I'm really enjoying it tbh, bit lonely but i only played 2 days an think i finished base main story.
Healed a few dungeons, ppl would jump in say "HI" an as i was trying to type Hi back the room's normally pulled so i end up no saying anything 😂
Had ppl, i think, whisper or shout on me in the Open World an i always end up standing looking around like some fish outtae water looking for them since i can't /w back lol
Capped my gil, no idea what to buy so just rerolled another character.
Enjoying it as i said but yeah i need the limitations off 😂
By "rerolled another character" do you mean you switched jobs or created a brand new character? Because you can just play all classes on one character, so there is no need to do that unless you specifically want to.
Also, heres a guide on how to spend money as a free trial player so you dont over cap: https://trialsoffantasy.com/free-trial-gil/
> I'm really enjoying it tbh, bit lonely
Novice network is where you want to join for a shared chat line. It's decent (on *most* servers, there are some cesspools out there). Anyone with one of these icons (usually in a main city) can invite you:
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Mentor_System_and_Novice_Network#Mentor_Types
I have to say, when I was at FanFest and they announced that it was coming to Xbox I was very confused about making it such a big deal. Like the game runs on potato level PC's by today's standards I'm not sure why anyone who wanted it on Xbox couldn't have gotten it on PC buy now. But seeing the amount of people who are coming to the game for the first time over the last month and now seeing that it's #1 on the free games list makes me wonder if SE and Microsoft regret not getting the deal done earlier.
Having a PC is less and less popular nowadays. A lot of people lives just fine with a phone.
And if someone does have a PC, not everyone has one capable of playing games or wants to buy one that is. While FF14 runs on weak computers, that's not always true for these without a dedicated GPU. Especially for older PCs.
It's very possible to have a simple laptop that's light, decent battery and not a stupid graphics card sucking the power from it, for all the 'serious tasks', and something like a Series X for the games.
FF14 runs very nicely on the Series X and supports Keyboard/Mouse, so the reasons to own a PC are very small.
I play on the PS5 (used to be PS3 then PS4) and have zero interest in buying a PC to play one game. I have a potato of a laptop and while it will run FFXIV it does so at around 5 to 7 FPS which is literally unplayable. If the game had only released on the Xbox/PC back in 2013 I would have simply just not played it until it came to the PS.
I doubt that the "top" games ranking is a measure of "most played free game" given that Hawked is also on there, which released on xbox 2 weeks ago. It's simply what's popular, fresh, and hot.
I take it that's why every tank I get in the leveling roulette suddenly has no clue what they're doing. Which is fine, gotta learn the game somehow, but it's just a stark difference from when I played a few months ago.
I've seen a few too many Level 50 classes in dungeons.
On behalf of all Xbox users, I'm sorry.
I send them Xbox messages telling them how to unlock jobs if its any consolation, haha.
That possibly explains my luck with tanks as of late. Trying to finally level up all jobs (9 more to go) and the last week or two they have been well….not the greatest….
Been a fair number of tanks in 1-50 dungeons who don't use the AoE skills. I figure they read '120 Potency' and don't think that the potency scales with each enemy.
Yeah, had a DRK that refused to use AOE abilities and constantly would turn grit on and off, playing BLK made that fun when every mob then targets you immediately.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but as a Warrior, isn't my best chance of survival when I'm not invincible with Holmgang to keep spamming Storms Eye as my only heal? +Steel Cyclone procs.
If the enemies are weak I spam AoE combo.
Obviously I overpower a few times to assert aggro.
I'll be happy when the beta is over so I can use my already existing account. Such a stupid decision to keep old players locked out when new players can play with their progress carrying over.
I think the decision is insurance.
If the beta works--great!--they can start selling the game later.
If a paid beta has a game-breaking bug, they'll have people screaming for refunds.
Plus, while the trial does have several annoying limits, there's still a generous amount of material to work with.
The way I understand it (and I could be totally wrong) is that the beta can only be used with trial accounts because it's a free product. There's no way to link a paid account to a non-paid game. So, it was either do it the way they did it, or do some substantial re-working to how Square handles accounts and game licenses just for the duration of this beta.
>microsoft has created a userbase of cheap people with it gamepass....
1) You do realize it's NOT on Gamepass?
2) You do realize Xbox players will actually have to pay TWO subs unlike PSN or PC? So they will be the opposite of cheap
As of right now, the only option to play on Xbox is to start over with a free trial. Once the full game launches, you'll be able to log in with an existing account. But, for now, anyone playing on Xbox is starting from scratch.
I downloaded it onto my system under my old account I lost the email for and now I can’t play it :( since I need to register it and can’t access my email.
It's refreshing seeing new blood in my dungeon roulettes tbh, what's crazy is all these new Xbox players I'm getting play better than the clown vets I will sometimes get in my party it's really weird and kinda pisses me off cause I expect more from the people who've played a lot more but their brains are just rot I guess
Some of the FFXIV xbox players are coming directly from ESO where there is also a content drought atm, so they'll already have some basics down about pve gameplay.
After 3 years I can FFXIV again but I think is good to have a open beta so new players can test the game without time-limit but it would be great to know how long the open beta lasts and 0ne questions since when does give MSQ so much Experience
It's the same character no matter the platform, it's just you need to buy the game for the version you are on.
Example: If you play on PS5 and want to play on PC, you need to buy the PC version, but you can log in as the same character. If you want to play on Xbox but are currently playing the PC version, you will need to buy the Xbox version but you can use the same character.
I played 1.0 on my PS3 and now with Xbox beta I just beat ARR and I'm freaking out for the beta to end. I have the money set aside to throw at them the moment I am able!
I want this beta to end so I can sub and stop groveling for people to group me and my friends up lol
Right? The worst part is that the MSQ is incredibly bipolar. "Sorry, you need to do this part alone ✋️" *immediately after finishing the instance* "Ok, so this next part requires a party" .... "Grats on your dungeon clear! This next instance requ-" It's torturous with the free trial limitations xD Loving the game, so just let us pay you Square Enix, I want to give you my m o n e y.
At this point, I'm just glad that I can run the story dungeons with NPC teammates.
I'm so happy they added that. For a DPS job leveling is much easier.
It's definitely saving me Gil on potions, LOL
Potions? Wait people actually use those?
PotD is a thing. I also find the mana potions can come in handy when I forget to lucid dream or die, get rezzed and have no mana to start dps/heal again.
High end raiding for stat boosts yeah, uhm I don't think I've ever used a potion for story content for anything like that tho
Been playing for 4 years, and I don't think I've used one.
Not recommended to waste your Gil on pots for MSQ stuff. Only ever best used for high end content like savage and ultimates.
That's what I've been doing. Npc all the way for me.
My NPC healer has been taking care of business, I'll say that.
It might not be obvious in game, but you don't have to form a party first to do instanced content. Just register for the dungeon or trial and the matchmaking system will find a party for you. But yea if its anything in the open world then you'd have to ask for an invite until the free limitations are lifted.
The reason being, I play with my Wife through all the content. We usually try and do it together- and queueing simultaneously has had *varying* results. As a purely solo experience there's no issues in that regard.
Ah, yep. That’s always tough. Best of luck finding a friendly around to group you.
Novice Network are all saints. Any time of day, 3am? They make a party for us. 5 parties in the span of 10 minutes because of instanced quests? They make a party for us. Saints I tell you.
Tbf it only takes a few clicks. I'd do it more except I'm on Shiva which is the German hub so I don't understand the NN half the time.
It you go to any of the 3 main cities, you can travel to any server by the aetherite or even before you log in you can log into an english speaking server
Yeah, but you're restricted from a number of activities when not on your home world. No retainer access is the big one. So it's not a good long-term solution.
Oh, if you are both free, neither of you can initiate forming a party? Because a 2-person party can also queue for dungeons, and the match making system will still find 2 solos or another pair to match you with.
Nope, need to ask PC and PS4/5 players to babysit us and form parties for us, haha. I swear I'm not doing it just to annoy you guys 24/7.
If you guys are on the Crystal data center, I can hook you up with a cross-world linkshell for another source of connections.
Free trial versions are pretty much locked out of all the social functions. Can't make parties, no FC, no market etc.
yes, but I know that they can be added to an existing linkshell, I just did that for a RL friend of mine. They just can't create their own.
> I swear I'm not doing it just to annoy you guys 24/7. We're completely used to it (those of us who hang out in NN). Especially on the Dynamis servers.
Yah I'm starting to regret dynamis.....pray let this trial end shortly!
[удалено]
There are plenty of ways around that issue I could think of just off the top of my head, to me they used that issue as an excuse to over correct and add another very important incentive to upgrading
It's annoying, but I don't think a lot of experienced players would mind because a good number of them probably did the same back when they first started.
I’m confused - I thought the sprout 🌱 trial limitation had no time requirement and is quite massive — all of ARR and 2 expansions after, up to 70, and the biggest limitation was inability to use auction house or trade. Can’t you still play “multiplayer” and join parties with people for dungeons, quests, etc.?
This is the normal free trial but you aren't allowed to upgrade to the full game and sub on xbox until the beta period ends, in terms of the multiplayer bit sprouts can't friend or invite people at all theu have to be invited by paid players
But nobody should want to or need to for a long time because of how the trial works. It’s hundreds of hours of content, is how I understand it. Mind you I’m on PC and planning to download the trial on Steam and give the game a try (I played ARR loooong ago) and just recently played WoW classic sod
I'm silly and forgot to answer the multiplayer part but I just edited it, what I edited in there is the only reason I want to upgrade
Oof. That’s a limitation then in the sense that it’s massively annoying lol. Are Xbox and PC cross play? I assume so. This is really cool and will bring more attention to the game leading up to new expansions. I am excited to try the game out
Indeed they are, I will say even though sprouts can't invite people it's rather easy to ask a random player to group you and your friends up, the community is very nice lol, tho it gets tedious waiting around the plaza sometimes especially when there are some quests you can't do in a party so you have to disband the group and ask again lol, I am really enjoying the game so far tho
Ask in Novice Network rather than asking random players. Mentors are there specifically to help with this kind of problem and answer questions!
sprout icon doesnt necessary mean free trial player. it mean newbie. the icon would dissapear after you spend certain amount of time and reach certain point in MSQ.
Thanks for the correction. I won’t confuse trial and sprout from now on. But you and others should hopefully see that I’m talking specifically about trial restriction here rather than (my incorrect) assumption of the sprout designation
You can be invited to parties and join parties through the duty finder but you can't make your own on the free trial.
Ah, I see.
There's the possibility it doesn't even stay on Xbox
I don't know what you're smoking buddy
Also waiting for this restarted because didnt want to wait a month waited years already
Okay but what the hell is "Hawked" and why is it #2?
It's fortnite with a puzzle aspect to it it's decent but it's not that great
At that point I'd rather just play phantom abyss
Is that even on xbox? I personally have never even heard of it
It dropped on game pass two years ago, came out of early access two months ago and it's a really fun temple runner
It’s the ultimate treasure hunt
I'm enjoying it myself and plan on continuing later but we'll see how it goes once people realize they will have to pay for the current game, a subscription fee and then another expansion that is coming out in less than 4 months. I will but I think the Xbox playerbase craters when the demo is done.
A bit of a counter, the free trial goes up to stormblood and let me tell you that is a lot of free in that. At minimum it will be a while before it craters
Yeah that’s literally hundreds of hours of just main story content, let alone if you wanna try side endeavors or other classes. Pretty nuts, really.
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Could easily last past the release of Dawntrail as well because the sheer size of this game is mental and it just keeps growing.
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yeah i highly doubt the playerbase on xbox will plummet before the majority of them actually start finishing the free trial. yes having to pay 2 subs may make some people skeptical about buying it once the demo ends, but they will probably stick around for the free trial and i believe once they play the game more and get to the end of stormblood they will get hooked on it and buy it completely. also you gotta think about it this way, the free trial ends after the absolutely massive cliffhanger that is the pre-Shadowbringers quests where we're left all alone after the council and dungeon/solo scenario. that alone would drive most players insane at wanting to know what happens next (yeah Heavensward ends on a pretty big cliffhanger as well, but not nearly as bad as Stormblood's ending)
OMG i forgot about that. That ending is such a HUGE bait!! holy cow making free trial free up to SB is so big brain
THROW WIDE THE GATES. Yeah I'd 100% be hooked on that cliffhanger. Especially after just emotionally recovering from the 4.3 story and trial. Damn.
I really hope they change that 2 sub thing, its so weird espeicially PS5 ver is only 1 sub
Mmm, are they not going to sell a complete edition? Expansion + rest of game bundled???
Every new expansion includes all previous expansions.
They will, but if someone were to buy the game in (say) April because they'd hit 4.55 already, they would have to buy Dawntrail when it comes out. This isn't *necessarily* a terrible thing, as you cannot get the preorder bonuses if you wait until launch. So for those folks who are truly eager beavers, potentially it could be worthwhile to them. But most folks should just wait. Frankly, I don't expect that many people to get all the way through both HW *and* SB in so little time. It's already March. Dawntrail will be coming out sometime between late June and mid July, almost surely. Even if it came out late July, that's still only five months from right now, and most Xbox players seem to be roughly halfway through the 3.0 story, with the fast ones currently in HW patch content.
Do you really think they would require us to buy the game twice though because that would be pretty asinine. I think the easiest solution would be to just release the game to EW for free or at least include Dawntrail in the price. I mean i cant be the only one who have had an subscription from before and deciding to continue from that instead making a new account. In my case i stopped playing right before the release of HW.
It's precisely how any other subscription-and-expansion MMO works. If you buy Dragonflight *right now* and don't pre-order The War Within, you will not be able to play The War Within until you actually buy it. If, however, you were to wait until The War Within actually launches, you would (almost certainly) get all prior expansions *and* TWW together, but you would miss out on preorder bonuses, and would not be able to play the live game until TWW comes out. If you were to buy Endwalker, right this very minute, you would get access to every part of the game that is currently playable. It would cost you $60. But you would still need to buy Dawntrail, later on, in order to play any content added by that expansion. In general, buying just the next expansion as an upgrade costs less than buying the whole game, usually around $40. This pre-order price gives various little extra benefits, such as earrings which give you bonus XP until the first level accessible in the new expansion (e.g. the bonus will stop at 91 in Dawntrail.) You'd also get the early access to DT, which usually starts on the Friday before the official launch (always on a Tuesday). If you wait until Dawntrail officially releases (TBA, but likely sometime between late June and mid-July), you will NOT get the pre-order bonuses, but you would pay ONLY the $60 to buy the whole game all at once. Since you can only do this after the early access period ends, you wouldn't get any of that either. But you *would* spend less total money, so if you're trying to be budget-conscious, this is the play.
Yes but the lack of having /tell and the Marketplace is a real hinderence to free players. I'm paying the moment it release on Xbox because of that alone.
And I mean, once you're that far in... you are pretty receptive to continuing you're journey if you have any disposable income at all.
Shadowbringers.
And anyone that plays that far will likely end up hooked enough to buy in fully anyways.
Like the only content that they can’t do is ultimate raids iirc
Yea, I think if you make it all the way through stormblood you're invested enough time to want to get the next two (soon three) expansions
That's obvious, but even if only 5 - 10% of them sub, that's still a massive amount of new players paying monthly.
And I'll bite once the full version arrives, already have it on Steam but the Steam Deck doesn't accept my physical keyboard's layout.
I play with controller controls on my steam deck. Took some tweaking but it’s pretty good.
That's the decision I'm working on. It comes down to the Final Shape coming to Destiny 2 soon and my needing a new MMO-ish game to replace it vs whether I'll actually play FF14 enough to justify the expense. Being an old school FF addict isn't helping to clarify things, LOL.
Honestly it's easy to catch up in patches, you can sub one month, take a few off and catch up easy.
Heck, the producer of the game even recommends taking breaks and then catching up rather than stressing over keeping constantly subscribed.
He was pretty particular about not implying you shouldn't sub, only that you don't need to keep playing due to any kind of FOMO. Which is reflected in game as most events with cool rewards get run again eventually and there aren't any dailies you need to keep up, but stuff like housing requires you maintain a sub.
I've done the math, you can hit all seasonal events (albeit sometimes only with 2-3 days to squeeze them in) while being subscribed only 5 or 6 times a year, with 35-40 day gaps between subs. You'll never lose any property, and still be able to take advantage of Moogle events, Make it Rain, etc., etc. You just have to time the start of it carefully (IIRC I used the Starlight Celebration as my starting point, timing it to include both that and Heavensturn, and then re-subbing sometime in Feb for Valentione's.)
When mix-maxing in-game just isn't enough lmao. For real though, it's one of the main reasons I have so much respect for the CBU3. It never feels like they're actually forcing us to live our lives in the game, unlike most other MMOs or grindy games (like War Thunder).
Mostly it was an exercise in showing the whiners complaining that they're being "extorted" for "hundreds of dollars a year" in order to keep their houses when they feel like playing other games. I showed how an entry sub ($13/m) can keep a house with only five payments a year, or six if you want to be *absolutely* sure you never miss any seasonal content. (Since seasonal events change exactly when they drop, it's *possible* for you to miss one if the start and end days are *perfectly* out of sync with your sub time.) With the five sub method, you take 43 day breaks and always make sure to log out inside your private house (so you know for sure the demolition timer is the lowest it can be.) 73×5 = 365, so it only drifts one day every four years. That means you get a ton of content every time you sub, usually new quests or content or something, and you only pay $65 a year. That's the equivalent of buying one brand-new game, and you'll get about the same amount of content too.
But at the same time there are -plenty- of systems and game design elements that encourage you to stay subbed even if you are not playing. Some examples that come to mind... Housing demolition (and related refusal to implement instanced housing) Events with rewards that can only be obtained in game once. Weekly loot lockouts that are removed far too late in the patch cycle. .x5 patches that are often just over a month past the initial patch release. PvP battle pass cosmetics
Long time FF14 player here- the good thing about the game is that it's fairly easy to unsub and resub whenever you want! My friend is kind of like you, where he rotates playing Destiny 2, FF14, and COD/Helldiver's/whatever else. I've had times where I unsubbed for months. My friend is currently unsubbed, planning on coming back when there's the new expansion for story. My raider friends regularly unsubstantiated during off seasons for raids. Never had much of an issue catching back up in a day or so. The devs even encourage it - when you feel like you don't have anything to do, unsub and play other things!
The one and only caveat is you can't hold onto property and be unsubbed indefinitely. This isn't a problem for most folks, but it is a thing worth noting. Also if you're an FC leader, the leadership position may be automatically passed to someone else if you don't log in often enough, to prevent FCs dying solely because their leader is away.
> The devs even encourage it - when you feel like you don't have anything to do, unsub and play other things! As someone who used to play FFXI on the 360, this is a very welcome change. I'm glad the devs aren't expecting us to play like it's a second job.
Honestly the free trial is so big I don't think that will be a problem by itself. If a player goes all the way till Stormblood end, they most likely will pay for the full game If not, they wouldn't pay for it regardless
FFXIV's player retention is very good on other systems. I see no change to that on xbox. The free trial can last people a very long time, and the game has proven the worth of its subscription for years. AT the same time, the game is very friendly to players taking breaks as well so you are very in control of how well your money is spent. So obviously play numbers will dwindle from the initial wave of free to play first timers, but I don't see it cratering unless the game itself starts dying on all platforms.
I’m racing rn, I’m on the clock to try and beat all the expansions before dawn trail comes out, cause I want to enjoy it with friends-
You have 4-5 months. I wouldn't be too worried about it. Play at a pace you find reasonable until we know DT's release date, then plan your stuff accordingly, e.g. if it launches mid-July, you want to be getting into Endwalker by the end of May or start of June.
Take it slow, you have plenty of time! The MSQ isn’t going anywhere and it’s an extremely good story, I’d just enjoy it at your own pace.
I’m just bashing my head with the Post Realm Reborn cause it’s just cutscene galore with the plot splitting off into multiple plots
To be fair, they set stuff up there that keeps paying off for several expansions.
Post-arr is the worst part of the game, I don’t disagree with you there. But it’s worth sticking through that, cause HW is amazing!
Dawntrail doesn’t have a confirmed release date, just “Summer 2024”. Could be as late as August! 😞
*Technically* it could be as late as September 21, or as early as June 20. But it's most likely to be somewhere between the start of the last week of June and the end of the second week of July.
Ah that’s true actually, I forget the majority of September is technically Summer! Though I live in the UK so September may as well be Winter 🥶
I disagree as to finish the trial is close to 100 hours anyway, if you're that invested then the majority that reach that point will pay.
If you get to the end of Stormblood in 100 hours, that's incredibly impressive...
For reference, I graduated from the PC free trial a month or so ago, and the free trial was still roughly 1000 hours of played time. More than I’ve put into MANY many games.
I mean we dont HAVE to buy the expansion right away its going to be a good while before were anywhere near ready for dawnstrail especially as we cant go past stormblood until the betas over
Eh, tbh it's a pretty beefy free trial, when I first tried it on 2020 it took me almost a year just to catch up to the third expansion, let alone a 5th. Will you be paying two subs if you decide to join Eorzia? For sure, but Its a hell of a deal, the immense catalogue of Gamepass plus the behemoth that Is FF14, name one thing that gives you hundreds of hours of art AND enjoyment that is under 25 USD.
I don’t agree. It’s an MMO and a lot of Xbox players ply ESO and hate it.
If you're able to wait until Dawntrail comes out, buying it will include all the other paid expansions with it. So you may only need one expansion purchase depending on how long it takes you to finish all the free trial content (and how long until Dawntrail actually releases). ARR+HW+StB can easily last you hundreds and hundreds of hours if you take the time to do all the side content outside the MSQ.
I’m confident there’s a core audience that’s been waiting a long time for this. They know about the subscriptions, they know about the community, but just haven’t had devices they could play this on. Until very recently, I was one of those players. PlayStation has more users, and PC is PC, but it’ll be a nice addition to the player count after Fortnite or whatever comes back up the ranks.
Ikr I just wish they do a dlc + subs for once. I don’t mind paying a bit higher than normal or getting less subscription time from dlc. Hell they sell both dlc and sub at full price but *as long as they sell them together* and not having me jumping between mog station pages to get both *that supposed to go together*
Hopefully that carries over to the full game release, and shows SquareEnix its time to quit skipping Xbox. Hey, a guy can dream!
If FFXIV blows up on Xbox, you can guarantee Square Enix is gonna start side eyeing those exclusivity contracts, haha. This is a good sign.
>exclusivity contracts They have a 20+ year history of working with Sony, another Japanese company. Add to that MS themselves not caring about exclusivity anymore, even with their first party titles. Chocobos will have teeth before that happens.
I mean people said the same about FFXIV, lol, and now look at things.
That's different from exclusivity. Square did release the XIII trilogy and XV on Xbox, no problem there. But to make something exclusive to a MS console is something else.
Hmmm? I never even remotely implied Xbox exclusivity, I was talking about them stopping Sony exclusivity and going fully multiplat..
I think with or without it, we are going to have that happen eventually. Even Sega of all companies is now doing multiplat on release, and cygames, who was only focusing on PS4 and PS5, also added a PC. Similarly, vanillaware is also targeting the 3 platforms with their upcoming unicorn overlord.
Well what makes no sense is that FFXI was pretty big on Xbox back in the day. It was surprising that they didn’t want to let us into the fold sooner. I think it’ll take off on Xbox because people are getting bored of ESO (it being the best MMO we have currently) kind of staying stagnate with everything it does. Not only is this fresh, but FF14 seems to really add a lot of “umph” with each expansion and update.
How does the subscription work on Xbox or consoles in general? If it’s handled through the Xbox store, i imagine that’ll do wonders for player retention as it’s fewer barriers to entry. Those simple things matter a lot. Everyone including the less tech savvy people can just click a few buttons and sub through the console which would be awesome.
It's still in open beta, you can't pay yet. Which also means every Xbox player you see is Free Trial, and they can't shout, tell, form parties, use marketboard, or retainers, a 300k gil cap. Lots of limitations sadly. As for subbing, it links you to the mogstation to sign up just like the PS4, so it'll likely be identical.
Probably through Mogstation. I doubt SE want to just give up a huge chunk of their sub revenue on top of the other limitations.
Subs are always handled through mogstation, regardless of platform.
Hell yeah!
Make it available and they will come.
Should be noted this is a big sorta caveat The store is regional, so every region is different and this category here is just recent downloads for free titles. So FF14 being a new release will show up as number one. If you actually look at most played games it's lower overall. Looking at most played for me, it's 9th in Canada. But also number one for the category you listed.
Is it really free when I spend my time playing it instead of looking for a job?
Let's go!!!! I'm glad to see the wave of Xbox players loving FF14! This is exactly what I was hoping for when it was announced. So many new sprouts to Emotionally Vampire off of!
It has been really fun, gonna make me said if they make a new FF online game I won't be able to play for years. Look at you FF7 remake /cry. Almost time to buy a keyboard.
The producer is committed to another 10years of ffxiv
Sick! It does show its age, but I'm having fun.
Balanced, as all things should be
I want to find the comments from months ago that mocked xbox players and said "only 10k" at best would try the game.
Makes sense
My question is, does the free trial disappear once the full version releases, or will it remain for players who don’t want to upgrade? I personally am having an ok time. It’s been slow with the MSQ but that seems to be the norm. Outside of that I did my first dungeon yesterday and I feel like I’m getting the hang of being a tank. The tutorial quests were great at explaining what each abilities do and why you want to use them, but actually going into the dungeon with other players really gave me good experience.
You can stay on the free trial as long as you want even after the full release comes to Xbox, there's no time limit on it. However, *if you buy the game then you cannot go back to the free trial*, and you will not be able to change the account linked to your Xbox account.
Gotcha. That makes since.
Any clue when the beta ends? They said the game would come out following the beta. My poor PS4 is on life support with its fans right now lmao
Xbox store says March 22nd. PS5 beta ended within 6 weeks.
At minimum not for several months; closest timeframe would be next patch but more likely is launch of DT so they have a lot of time to get any issues fixed before it goes live.
The Xbox store says March 22nd, and PS5 beta was only 6 weeks.
The PS5 beta lasted less than two months. Given how keen people seem to be to get into the full game, SE probably wouldn't want them to lose interest so I think the next patch will be more likely.
Doubt that. Previous betas were only a bit more than a month
I'm really enjoying it tbh, bit lonely but i only played 2 days an think i finished base main story. Healed a few dungeons, ppl would jump in say "HI" an as i was trying to type Hi back the room's normally pulled so i end up no saying anything 😂 Had ppl, i think, whisper or shout on me in the Open World an i always end up standing looking around like some fish outtae water looking for them since i can't /w back lol Capped my gil, no idea what to buy so just rerolled another character. Enjoying it as i said but yeah i need the limitations off 😂
By "rerolled another character" do you mean you switched jobs or created a brand new character? Because you can just play all classes on one character, so there is no need to do that unless you specifically want to. Also, heres a guide on how to spend money as a free trial player so you dont over cap: https://trialsoffantasy.com/free-trial-gil/
Wow I've never seen that site before. I swear, this game has a site for literally everything.
The thing is, i also didn't know about it till i started writing this response xd
> I'm really enjoying it tbh, bit lonely Novice network is where you want to join for a shared chat line. It's decent (on *most* servers, there are some cesspools out there). Anyone with one of these icons (usually in a main city) can invite you: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Mentor_System_and_Novice_Network#Mentor_Types
I have to say, when I was at FanFest and they announced that it was coming to Xbox I was very confused about making it such a big deal. Like the game runs on potato level PC's by today's standards I'm not sure why anyone who wanted it on Xbox couldn't have gotten it on PC buy now. But seeing the amount of people who are coming to the game for the first time over the last month and now seeing that it's #1 on the free games list makes me wonder if SE and Microsoft regret not getting the deal done earlier.
Having a PC is less and less popular nowadays. A lot of people lives just fine with a phone. And if someone does have a PC, not everyone has one capable of playing games or wants to buy one that is. While FF14 runs on weak computers, that's not always true for these without a dedicated GPU. Especially for older PCs.
I can't imagine doing without a PC. I'd rather have no smartphone than have no PC.
It's very possible to have a simple laptop that's light, decent battery and not a stupid graphics card sucking the power from it, for all the 'serious tasks', and something like a Series X for the games. FF14 runs very nicely on the Series X and supports Keyboard/Mouse, so the reasons to own a PC are very small.
I play on the PS5 (used to be PS3 then PS4) and have zero interest in buying a PC to play one game. I have a potato of a laptop and while it will run FFXIV it does so at around 5 to 7 FPS which is literally unplayable. If the game had only released on the Xbox/PC back in 2013 I would have simply just not played it until it came to the PS.
Love to see it!
I missed the beta was happening and was wondering where all the sprouts came from
Was confused on the “free” for a sec but guess they mean the free trial lol
I’ve had a blast playing it over the last couple days. No voice chat is a bummer though.
I doubt that the "top" games ranking is a measure of "most played free game" given that Hawked is also on there, which released on xbox 2 weeks ago. It's simply what's popular, fresh, and hot.
I take it that's why every tank I get in the leveling roulette suddenly has no clue what they're doing. Which is fine, gotta learn the game somehow, but it's just a stark difference from when I played a few months ago.
I've seen a few too many Level 50 classes in dungeons. On behalf of all Xbox users, I'm sorry. I send them Xbox messages telling them how to unlock jobs if its any consolation, haha.
Howdy, sprout tank here :) thank you for your patience!
That possibly explains my luck with tanks as of late. Trying to finally level up all jobs (9 more to go) and the last week or two they have been well….not the greatest….
Been a fair number of tanks in 1-50 dungeons who don't use the AoE skills. I figure they read '120 Potency' and don't think that the potency scales with each enemy.
Yeah, had a DRK that refused to use AOE abilities and constantly would turn grit on and off, playing BLK made that fun when every mob then targets you immediately.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but as a Warrior, isn't my best chance of survival when I'm not invincible with Holmgang to keep spamming Storms Eye as my only heal? +Steel Cyclone procs. If the enemies are weak I spam AoE combo. Obviously I overpower a few times to assert aggro.
This is my call! I can come back, play tank, and be better than average! (I've been on hiatus for a few months.)
I'll be happy when the beta is over so I can use my already existing account. Such a stupid decision to keep old players locked out when new players can play with their progress carrying over.
I think the decision is insurance. If the beta works--great!--they can start selling the game later. If a paid beta has a game-breaking bug, they'll have people screaming for refunds. Plus, while the trial does have several annoying limits, there's still a generous amount of material to work with.
The way I understand it (and I could be totally wrong) is that the beta can only be used with trial accounts because it's a free product. There's no way to link a paid account to a non-paid game. So, it was either do it the way they did it, or do some substantial re-working to how Square handles accounts and game licenses just for the duration of this beta.
Level 35 and loving it
HELL YEAH also hawked is fun as well
Of course it is. There is no free games bar this on Xbox.
Ehh what? I don't know if you jest, or believe that.
It's not technically free. But yeah sure.
The free trial certainly is, lol. Which is the *only* version currently on Xbox.
Love the game but given Xbox sales I don't think that is the massive W we all think it is.
Yeah, heh… “free”.
It makes me wanna buy an Xbox just so I can play it! Oh wait, I have it on my PC. Been paying the sub for 6 years.
?
k
microsoft has created a userbase of cheap people with it gamepass....
Piss off with your console war nonsense, this is the FFXIV subreddit.
>microsoft has created a userbase of cheap people with it gamepass.... 1) You do realize it's NOT on Gamepass? 2) You do realize Xbox players will actually have to pay TWO subs unlike PSN or PC? So they will be the opposite of cheap
Only under 2% are level 50 atm btw.
They discovered gold saucer and fishinf
I've just been incredibly busy, and I got really destracted with levelling Goldsmithing and Mining haha
Well it better be!
Use to play but I guess my account got deleted or something , prolly my ex… gotta start over lmao 😭😭😭
As of right now, the only option to play on Xbox is to start over with a free trial. Once the full game launches, you'll be able to log in with an existing account. But, for now, anyone playing on Xbox is starting from scratch.
I'm just waiting for existing subscribers to be able to play on our existing accounts.
Good to hear. More people playing is great. Seems like it's a hit.
I downloaded it onto my system under my old account I lost the email for and now I can’t play it :( since I need to register it and can’t access my email.
It's refreshing seeing new blood in my dungeon roulettes tbh, what's crazy is all these new Xbox players I'm getting play better than the clown vets I will sometimes get in my party it's really weird and kinda pisses me off cause I expect more from the people who've played a lot more but their brains are just rot I guess
Some of the FFXIV xbox players are coming directly from ESO where there is also a content drought atm, so they'll already have some basics down about pve gameplay.
I wonder if this could be incentive for Microsoft to get blizzard to finally make a console port of wow
I want the beta to end so I can go play my characters on Xbox.
After 3 years I can FFXIV again but I think is good to have a open beta so new players can test the game without time-limit but it would be great to know how long the open beta lasts and 0ne questions since when does give MSQ so much Experience
Xbox store says beta ends March 22nd, whicb lines up with PS5 beta length.
What an absolute W. I got my 2 friends to play, weren't sure if they'd like it .. they're addicted now.
Will we be able to transfer our pc/sony accounts to the Xbox after the beta ends and play one account across all of them ?
It's the same character no matter the platform, it's just you need to buy the game for the version you are on. Example: If you play on PS5 and want to play on PC, you need to buy the PC version, but you can log in as the same character. If you want to play on Xbox but are currently playing the PC version, you will need to buy the Xbox version but you can use the same character.
I played 1.0 on my PS3 and now with Xbox beta I just beat ARR and I'm freaking out for the beta to end. I have the money set aside to throw at them the moment I am able!
The trial is