SquareEnix Earnings Call

ive played ffxi on and off for 5 years or so so ive seen the economy when like some 1 siad be4 when sh"s were 30 mil and ive seen it when they were 250k and what it boils down to is the maturity of the player which in ffxi case would lead to supply and demand for the simple fact that every one had a sh by the time it got down to 250 k be cause its not a consummable item now ive raised cooking to 100 in ffxi and also have my fishing at 80+ with a lu rod so i could catch every fish u need for fishing to make sushi what i noticed was that people camped the ah for fish to turn sushi out as fast as possible and then sold at a lost which i thought was funny because i could price with them and still make a huge profit because im only paying for the wasbi ect..with that said the problem i see with ffxiv is that there is no price point for any thing at all and until thats established there system is going to be flawed. just adding the search feature really anit gonna change the dynamics to favor the person whose item pops up first because if u a smart shopper ull look for the lowest priced item or atleast compare prices i understand gil is pretty easy to come by in ffxiv right now but that usually changes as people rank up ect especially the way ffxiv is set up i could rank every job up then what would i need any one for because i farm/craft every thing on my own or with a few friends basically what im trying to get at is yes the ah in ffxi is jacked but the same thing can and prolly will happen to ffxiv for the simple fact of the way u rank up in the game there would be no need to buy anything from any 1 cuz u could make it your self

It doesn't matter whether you call it undercutting or competition, it's the same thing, although I do agree that it's not such an evil thing as people make out. Ignore the copyright part of what I said and read the rest if it offends you so badly, and tell me those three ways of making money aren't true. You add customer service and customer loyalty into the mix, which is something else that doesn't transfer to the in-game society, but it's also the same for on-line shopping.

At the end of the day, if you're trying to buy something, you're going to go where it's cheapest. Very few people in this day and age will buy something for more than they have to out of loyalty, and if they do, more often than not you're talking retail or hospitality, which just doesn't fit the mold. The following sentence only works in a face to face shopping environment; "Well, they're kind of expensive, but the service is so amazing I don't mind paying that little extra." Even then, most people will still go for the cheaper option.

So my point stands really, undercutting (or competition if you will) is an economic fact of life, outside of forming a cartel with your competition, there's really nothing you can do about it. There are ways you can work around competition, or even ways to make it work in your favour if you're shrewd enough (I'm not), but you can't avoid it. Any economic system that appears to solve the "issue" of competition can only be doing so at great detriment to the populace. The current ward system for instance, undercutting isn't so much of an issue because things are so *** hard to find that most people will just buy what they want the first time they see it.

So 14 is free to play now until March... lol! Actually not a bad idea.

lol, that is not what it says

Well, I'm reluctantly supporting FF14 by staying loyal to it and paying the upcoming monthly fees, however.... If they do not put an Auction House and get rid of this retainer crap, there will be 2 less account for S.E. by January 2011. I am hanging on to FF11 becuase theres' a 75% chance I will be back Full time into it. to S.E.: Use what you learned from ff11, put an auctionhouse and save me the trouble searching through 100's of people for things I don't need, needless to say save me those two hours to go out and kill stuff. If Steven Spielberg waited 10+ year for technology to advance enough to make a movie like Avatar, you can take another 5 years and come up with a good MMO that is fun to play, and not a second job.

What actually destroyed 11 market is 95% of the new gear being R/EX and not craftable.

The thing is that ff11's AH vs ff14 market ward system is that 14 players use all 3 nations wards. In 11 the WhiteGate/Juno AH is what is used the most and the 3 nations AH are essentially used for low lv stuff from like lv 1-15 then its all Juno/WG for the lvs above 15 which allows price fixing. Now in 14 its much harder because there is no centralized ward essentially. You can go to LL and find the same stuff as Ulda selling for different prices which allows better deals and keeps the market fair to an extent. People aren't going to travel to all 3 nations and buy up all the same stuff then resell it at an outrageously higher price like they do in 11. This is also why I think they are only allowing you to use 1 retainer and although its a headache it actually works. You have to ask yourself do you want a *** economy that easy to to get stuff at inflated prices or a Fairer economy that is slightly more tedious to find stuff.

Ok yeah you have to a FFXI account that's not in trial period too.

I think most people rather get it sooner then later.

your example can be explained by supply and demand as well. Okay, i'm assuming for this you are implying that supply and demand until now have been constant. A new entrant has come in for this case, therefore supply has increased. Prices are expected to fall as demand is constant. In addition to that, for whatever reason he is able to sell the identical product for less. Im assuming he is rational and is still selling the product for a profit. For a single person to be able to drive the prices below 20k, he would need to be able to produce enough to be able to single handedly satisfy the server demand, leaving poor Tav tacos stuff unsold However for market prices to be able to be declining constantly, the said new entrant would need to consistently supply items at that price or lower. A consistent supply is needed as if the new entrant only sells a few items, prices will not be affected much as his undercut items would quickly be bought out. Obviously if there still is profit to be made, everyone else, including Taco tavi will need to adjust prices or stop selling the item altogether and pursue something else Prices will continue to fall until people are no longer willing to sell their product at that price, leaving a few who is able to sustain a margin left in the market. So what happens after? With people leaving the market, supply decreases. Assuming demand constant, prices will rise again. If prices do not change, the demand must have. If not, the same cycle will repeat itself over and over again. The person who undercut prices to 20k deserves to have his items sold first. To be able to produce so many items and are still able to sustain a profit from it if he other sellers are not able to means that is is able to find cheaper mats then they are. Therefore the old players would need to find a cheaper way to make the same item, or risk losing money. Businesses today are run similarly. Its true that crafters would earn less per item in an AH system, but remember that you will be able to buy items at the same reduced rate as well, negating the loss of profits. To say that demand and supply does not affect AH IN FF11 specifically would mean that people who play FF11 are irrational people, which i fail to believe. ALL auction houses are the same, regardless of game. My advice to Taco tavi? either dump your items at a loss and explore other items, or wait till prices improve again.

SquareEnix stock is down about 20% since FF14's release. For a company with (at last report) a 1.8 trillion yen market cap, this would equate to a loss in company value of approximately US $4 billion.

They can probably make it back if it turns into a good product, but that's a tremendous amount of money, especially given that the company has lost almost 60% of its net worth in the past three years.

SquareEnix stock is down about 20% since FF14's release. For a company with (at last report) a 1.8 trillion yen market cap, this would equate to a loss in company value of approximately US $4 billion.

They can probably make it back if it turns into a good product, but that's a tremendous amount of money, especially given that the company has lost almost 60% of its net worth in the past three years.

"A delayed game will maybe be good one day, a bad game will always be bad."

Shigeru Miyamoto.

"A delayed game will maybe be good one day, a bad game will always be bad."

Shigeru Miyamoto.

"A delayed game will maybe be good one day, a bad game will always be bad."

Shigeru Miyamoto.

I dont even think that this statement is right.

Look how terribly FFXI started years ago. It wasnt even a worldwide release and didnt become a good game until the first 2 expansions and the worldwide release appeared. Now FFXI is what you can call a successful game in my understanding.

Now the thought-terminating cliché:

Starcraft was just horrible when it was released 1998. The balance was crap as ***and it wasnt a game u really wanted to use for e-sports. No one can ignore that Starcraft has become one of the best and most successful games of all time. But not before the expansion and several patches arrived.

So Shigeru Miyamoto exaggerates.

Ever notice how only FFXIV players believe FFXIV is a good MMO?