If you need to know the degree of regard that Final Fantasy XIV’s director and producer Naoki Yoshida has for World of Warcraft, a recent interview with the man gives a clear picture. Yoshida explains that without Blizzard’s MMO, there would not have been a successful relaunch of the game. He goes on to elaborate that as a fan of the game, he used inspiration about what worked there as a foundation to build upon, rather than simply building from the ground up to achieve a vision in his mind.
Yoshida also talks about the game having specifically avoided many large promotional campaigns during the pandemic, as he didn’t want it to seem as if the real-world event was being used as a business opportunity. He also mentions having been invited to visit Blizzard a few times in the past and taking inspiration as well as sharing his own insights; you can check out the full interview for more details and anecdotes.The original FFXIV was a failure of unprecedented proportions and I was entrusted with the duty of salvaging it. When taking the lead to relaunch a failed project, I don’t think you can afford to have the type of game you’d like to create in mind as your motivation. But I was playing WoW, and used that as a form of study. I deployed what I’d learned through the various teams and together we used that in development.
