FFXIV For Windows...

Has SE announced if it's going to be for Vista only or for both Windows XP and Vista? I really hate Vista... Lol

It will likely have XP/Vista/7 compatibility... But, I could see them doing only Vista/7.

Doubt it really :/ Would lose many customers by doing that. Not supporting NT4.x or before why not, but there's no way for not supporting 2K/XP.

If its made with DirectX10 then it will be Vista+, but since this is also being made for PS3, I'm thinking it won't be DX10. Won't know until official specs are released.

Won't be DX10 only. Would automatically exclude anyone with a non DX10 compliant card, that's even worse than making it Vista/7 only. Loss of customers again, I really doubt SE wanna do a such mistake again.

Not to mention that even if your card support DX10, performance will sux :< Using DX10 with an average graphic card is meh :/

I don't get the connection between PS3 and excluding DX10.

Given the level of graphics shown I would say that the card needed to play the game would have to be new enough to be DX10 compatible in the first place, so I would bet it's going to be a DX10 game.

While XP is the best OS M$ has put out, it's way past its EOL as far as M$ is concerned. Continuing to make games for an unsupported OS, even one as good as XP, is just not a good business decision. There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. It's not unheard of for games to be both DX9 and DX10 compatible, look at FarCry 2. It looks better in DX10, but you can still play it with XP/DX9.

Personally though I'm not worried about anything performance or OS-wise. I built a Hybrid-SLI machine that wouldn't work with anything but Vista Ultimate, and 2 GTX 260s and an 8800 should be able to handle anything I throw at it for quite some time. :3

I was thinking along the lines of directly porting between one platform to the other. I suppose they can just re-write the game engine itself to be DX10 and still allow portability between the data files of the two systems. It is true that excluding XP would be a bad business choice.

I understood everything. /sarcasm Personally I hope it's for vista. however nice it would be if it were for 360. if that would lower the specs like the ps2 did, i can live without 360+FFXIV.

Crysis, WiC, etc... Can do a DX9 and DX10 client for sure yeah. As for XP, it's far from being unsupported... You should check your sources really. Nowhere near EOL, since it's planned for April 8th 2014. FF XI runs on Win98, we're in 2009... So I don't see any issue having FF XIV running on XP.



Knowing SE, they'll prolly *** something up preventing you to get decent performance increase with a SLi system. We've seen that A LOT for others game, either SLi wasn't working at all (had to disable it in order to play), either it was working but unstable/glitchy, or working but no performance increase (or not significant).

I'd honestly be surprised if the game supported SLI or Crossfire at all. I'm sure it will be like FFXI.... If the console can't support it neither will the PC port.

Well, performance and fnctionality updates are being phased out in the next few months, only critical patches and security updates are being kept on until 2014.

IIRC FFXI was one of the first PC titles S/E had ever put out, as well as their first MMO ever. Hopefully in the intervening years they've picked up more on what the player expect as far as performance in a PC title. Not to mention they have to step up their game to compete with current titles like WoW and AoC.

Really though, the limitations on FFXI didn't really become apparent until PC power had sufficiently passed the PS2's that we could see that there was some kind of serious gimp on the FFXI engine.

The proof will be in the pudding.

It's not like an OS who matured for years still need performance updates really :s Critical hotfixes and security patch until 2014 are enough for the average user, we don't need more :P

There's really no reason for SE not to release FF XIV on XP.

Pudding. . .

Final Fantasy 7 was for PC. It had some small improvements over PS1. For example, the mouths would move hahahha

Also, DX10 can be used on Win XP, its just not oficially supported, but ive seen some vids and pics on some projects that allow Dx10 on XP.
Also Windows 7 is coming out soon! wooo, hopefully its nice and stable and has lots of outside support.

Yeah well that's not a solution for XP user anyway, that DX10-XP project is still experimental, doesn't work with all games, lot of glitchs/performance issue etc... I really doubt it'll ever work with FF XIV.

Windows 7 is a very solid system. XP is getting a bit long in the tooth. You can't expect every company to support obsolete tech forever. XP had a good run. But it needs to die quietly now. So much is unsupported in XP and the security is terrible. Vista was rushed to market and was unpolished, and a beast on system requirements. (I don't recommend Vista to anyone.) DX10 was a crippled dog due to lack of support from a certain videocard manufacturer, and MS tripping over its own feet to appease said company. This is not to be the case with DX11. DX11 is simply what DX10 'should have been'.
Decently performing DX10/10.1/and soon 11 cards can be had for as little as $30 USD. Not to mention that we are now approaching the 4th generation of pseudo DX10+ cards with ATI, and soon Nvidia will be reaching it's true second gen part.

This is all assuming SE were planning to release NOW. But, they aren't. The planned release date is after second quarter 2010. That means at least 2 more cycles in the DX videocard saga. That means lower prices on existing tech, and new and more powerful cards all around.

On release, Windows XP will be hitting 9 years old? Do we really expect to play modern games on a 9 year old PC? Then why expect to play it on a 9 year old OS?

In summation, why do we expect them to not take advantage of new and upcoming technology? I'd rather it not run as well now versus shitting on us graphically 5 years from now.

/end wall o' text.

You should be a salesman with talk like that.

The argument against putting FFXIV on Vista/7 is void due to being able to completely upgrade your computer system to be able to play FFXIV for US$400 in the form of a PS3. Chances are it will be cheaper by then too.

I'm not saying it justifies it but SE will look at their playerbase especially in Japan and look at the best way to make themselves money. They won't care so much about PC in Japan because the majority of their games are on console and by making more people buy a PS3 they will have more people willing to branch out to other games (FF13/FFvs13).

It'll be new tech.

Edit: Also the FFXIV website says Vista systems. 7 will support Vista. Hence FFXIV will work in Vista/7.

What matters is not when the game will be released but when the actual development started. And it started years ago. Seven wasn't even existing when dev started. Vista was there, but a complete failure and SE had no idea that Seven would become a "solid" OS.



I only see : Playstation 3, Windows.

Oh yeah also : http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=11

Still 73% of market share for XP, 17.90% for Vista. Even if the market share of XP is going down every month, if it keeps that pace, it wont be below 50% by 2010. Releasing a game that's only playable by 50% of consumers = ***. Even if XP market share drop to 20%, that's 20% potential customers lost for SE. Having a client supporting XP, Vista and 7 is completely possible, I really don't see why SE would simple ignore 20% of consumers.

Others stats I found gives XP between 65% and 70% too. Vista still <20%.

Don't forget that the majority of those XP machines are business machines. I know where I work has probably 5k machines with XP because there's no need to upgrade to Vista. It's not a full market capture.

But yeh sorry it does only say Windows not Vista. I did some digging though.


http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=18309
That info was put together from the SE/Sony press conferences at E3.

Usually this is the case, but not when it comes to graphical enhancements. Games are designed in a modular form now. The engines allow for updating core components separately from non core components like textures. The White Engine (which I'm 99% sure that SE is using in FFXIV) excels in this regard. This is why we are seeing components being rewritten in a matter of months for the Xbox360 version of FFXIII versus the traditional several years.
Also, simply because an OS is deemed a failure at release doesn't mean you stop developing for it. SE isn't stupid (despite what we like to think sometimes), they knew that MS had the marketing clout to shove that bloated goat of an OS down the consumers throats. And they knew it made good business sense to simply ride the wave and support it and XP. Now, with 7 looking like it does, it simply doesn't make sense to support XP, Vista AND 7. Simply drop the oldest tech and you're left with Vista, and the rock solid 7. It's just more cost effective in the long run.
Given SE's track record for supporting the lowest common denominator... We really won't know until it is released. I do expect full Windows Vista and 7 support. I am not so sure about xp, or DX9 support. I would assume since the PS3 is based on DX9 that we would see a DX9 option on a PC. But again, component based White Engine, they could scrap DX9 and go full on DX10/11. Doubtful, but not entirely unlikely.

The only thing that should matter is whether or not we will see a DX9 option. OS is not really relevant. All games that say "Vista only" will run on XP with a few simple tweaks, or just by installing it from the CD itself and not the auto-installer IF they are DX9. The only thing that would kill off the XP install base is excluding DX9. I think that is what people need to focus on. Doesn't matter if you throw a shiny new Nvidia GeForce 9billion at it, Windows XP simply won't run DX10.

That basically sums up the entire arrangement then. They are pushing the edge this time. I wouldn't hold my breath for a DX9 or WinXP version then. Not to say they would maliciously exclude those users on purpose, but they are basically not going to go out of their way to include them. And if it's going to be the Crysis of MMOs, don't expect your old S3 Virge card to cut the mustard here. :D

It doesn't mean you stop developing for it, I never said that, however it means that you'll {Take Care} about users of the previous generation, since the current one ain't a commercial success. That's obviously the case for Vista seeing the current market share of XP. As for OS, well when I talk about Vista/7 only, I off course mean DX10+ only. XP automatically imply no DX10 = can't run the game. Otherwise it can be worked around easily as you said.



Well stats are global, so everyone is included yeah, I'll try and search for more specific stats :d

I would expect Windows 7 to take off like a rocket compared to Vista. It is faster than XP/Vista, more stable than XP/Vista, has better support for both high end and older tech, and simply has a much more polished approach to the consumer experience. I'd say that the Vista users would jump ship faster than the XP users though. But when companies begin dropping support for XP, it'll be like rats on a sinking ship.

The 2014 date was for critical updates only. Driver support is expected to end by the release of 7. Meaning all new hardware will require an OS upgrade most likely. Again, it's not that the companies hate the XP users, it's simply not cost effective to support 9 year old software/OS.

As a side note, I'm interested in just how far they are planning to push the envelope. Will I "need" a quad core cpu running 3+ GHz? Perhaps an ATI X5800+/Geforce 380+? 8GB+ of RAM? I'm all for future proofing a game... but don't murder us! :D

You'll start to see the market share change when lease companies change their base OS product. I also know that ~3 years ago we still had Windows 2000 machines.


That's why the market share of XP is so high.

Yeah, we were running XP on our client PCs, and Server 2003 on the big thingy that made noises and blinks alot ... We don't know what that behemoth of a tower does, but frankly, we're all terrified of it -.-

Our scheduled upgrade to hit Vista was in October of 2008, but we passed due to the stability concerns and the possibility of hardware obsolescence. But, considering we fired up Windows 7 on a AMD K6-2 500MHz and 512MB of RAM... and it ran smooth... I would jump on Windows 7 like a naked Angelina Jolie... a really nerdy Angelina Jolie... with 0's and 1's instead of nipples ... /wrist

a lot of companies have windows xp or older for their computers. Like Walgreens (they have vista capable pcs, however they are running xp), Wells Fargo has windows 2000 at certain locations.

I'm sure there will be a way run the game on XP, i mean SE just says PS3 and Windows. Doesn't really specify what OS.

Can still buy hardware in 2009 that have driver support for Windows 98 :s I really doubt drivers support will cease quickly. What determine if something is cost effective or not is only the number of potential customer using an OS or another. If tomorrow we ALL switch back to Windows 95 (hell yeah Hover !), companies will have to make drivers for Windows 95 users. It's as simple as that.

Hmm thay would really suck if only for vista+ I hate vista......

Psst... Try Windows 7... You'll never go back :D

I don't work for Microsoft... But after using Windows 7 for 6 months, I wish I did so I could take credit for how nice 7 is. Seriously, go to www.Microsoft.com and download the RC version. It's solid as a rock, and slightly faster too! (Think "if Chuck Norris were a rock...")If everyone upgrades to 7, then we won't have any issues about XP! :P