[遊戲產業][產品]跌倒再爬起來的巨人－太空戰士XIV

2010年10月推出的太空戰士

去年度期待度最高的一款MMORPG非太空戰士XIV莫屬，可惜期待越高也越容易失望，這款產品被許多的知名網站批評的體無完膚，在Metacritic中更是在100分之中只拿了不到50分的成績，玩家的評分更惡毒，10分裡面拿了3.7分。在PC版Launch之後不久就宣佈延長免費測試期，除此之外還緊急撤換製作人希望可以拯救這款砸下重金的產品，另外一方面PS3版本也宣佈上市。

Square Enix lost ¥12 billion ($148 million/£90.6 million) during the year ending 31st March 2011. Sales were down 35 per cent on financial year 2010.

史克威爾艾尼克斯於2010年度財報更是有驚人的虧損，達120億日圓之多，年減35%。他們的老闆也將公司虧損歸咎於這款產品的失敗，導致收益縮減。

"Our Group experienced significantly lower sales and profit during the fiscal year mainly due to weak performance of console game titles released during the year as well as the impact of a continued delay in billing for a key online title, which was newly launched during the year," commented Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada.

新製作人Naoki Yoshida 吉田直樹先生

以下為他個人資歷：

Producer/Director: Naoki Yoshida [Director of S-E's Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road series of arcade games.]
Section Leader Changes

Assistant Director: Shintaro Tamai [Graphics director for various FF games (7, 8, 10, 13) mostly specializing in battle graphics and special effects. He was also the director of Front Mission 5.]

Lead Game Designer: Nobuaki Komoto [Originally director of FFXIV, it seems they're reducing his responsibilities so he can focus on designing the stuff he originally specialized in on FFXI - the scenario and quest design.]

Lead Combat System Designer: Akihiko Matsui [Originally the lead battle data planner for FFXI, he took over entirely as battle director for Aht Urhgan and Wings of the Goddess after Katsuhisa Higuchi left S-E.]

Technical Advisor: Yoshihisa Hashimoto [Ex-Sonic Team programmer, director of Sonic Unleashed and technical director of the Hedgehog Engine. Left Sonic Team and joined S-E in 2009 to work on their next-generation engine platform.]

Lead Programmer: Hideyuki Kasuga [Network programmer for the FFXI client and Dirge of Cerberus online mode. Lead programmer for Gyromancer.]

Senior Concept Artist: Akihiko Yoshida [FFXIV Art director, character designer for all of Matsuno's games, character designer for FF3 DS and FF 4 Warriors of Light. God's gift to S-E's art teams.]

Lead Artist: Hiroshi Takai [Mostly a battle graphic/effects director for most of the SaGa games, more recently overall director of The Last Remnant.]

Lead UI Designer/Lead Web Designer: Hiroshi Minagawa [Director of FFXII and Tactics Ogre PSP. Art director for all of Matsuno's games. God's other gift to S-E's art teams.]

最近吉田先生也提出了多項關於太空戰士XVI的改進方向，主要包含了角色平衡度調整，使用者介面改善，新系統－工作系統，新的移動模式，以及大幅度翻新戰鬥系統，以獎勵努力並降低枯燥為出發點，詳細的更新內容規劃可參考製作人發表的最新文章。

最有趣的問題來啦！ 遊戲市場到底會不會給太空戰士XIV再一次的機會呢？

其他市場也許狀況不是如此，但論及台灣市場的玩家倒是很願意給遊戲第二次機會，現在很多遊戲都是產品第一次生命週期結束之後，轉換營運公司或甚至由本來的營運公司直接改名字重新上市。(不過這裡有個先決條件是第一次上市時大受歡迎，但太空戰士如果以系列作來看，他也是大受歡迎過，後來逐漸式微)


以這個角度看起來也許是蠻有希望的，雖然這種現象在其他國家似乎沒有這麼常見，但如果產品是有認真聽取玩家意見修改，喜好太空戰士的玩家依然會玩到感動吧！？至於到底改出來會是什麼德行呢？可能就考驗到製作人及團隊的功力了，畢竟從哪裡跌倒就要從哪裡爬起來不是嗎？

乾脆出個各代女角召喚系統 X LOVE+戀愛系統