Pol News: Announcing the FINAL FANTASY XI Starter Pack! (07/20/2007)

[Peekaboo]

Announcing the FINAL FANTASY XI Starter Pack! (07/20/2007)
We're proud to announce the release of the FINAL FANTASY XI Starter Pack! Featuring an easy-to-install DVD and a 30 day free pass, the Starter Pack is a great gift for friends and relatives. Use this chance to invite them to adventure alongside you in the world of Vana'diel! The Starter Pack will be sold at retailers across the nation for the low price of $3.99. Form a group with friends and let your adventures begin anew!

Check out Starter Pack website for more details!

alright gonna invite my dog! it's only 4bucks

http://na.square-enix.com/ffxi/starterpack/

 

[Oracant]

I saw POL NEWS: ANNOUNING THE (Thought it said new jobs here)
That just spoiled my morning, i'm gonna go to bed now.

As a Sidenote I might use this.

 

[Sharpe]

I saw this available to buy on play.com the other week. I wondered what it was.

 

[LadyKiKi]

$4 ?!

Wow, a magazine I buy monthly costs more than that.

I might buy it just to have a DVD handy of everything. I don't like my 8 CD collection for FFXI, ZM, COP and TOAU.

 

[Sharpe]

$4 ?!

Wow, a magazine I buy monthly costs more than that.

I might buy it just to have a DVD handy of everything. I don't like my 8 CD collection for FFXI, ZM, COP and TOAU.

FFXI 2007 Edition GO! I only bought it for the all in 1 DVD'ness.

 

[Pasquale]

I might buy it just to have a DVD handy of everything. I don't like my 8 CD collection for FFXI, ZM, COP and TOAU.

Yeah same here. Having one disc would be so much easier than holding onto 8.

 

[Tristam Green]

Since the Vana'diel Collection already has FFXI, RoZ, CoP, and ToAU in them now, wouldn't it go without saying that this probably has either *just* PoL or PoL+FFXI/RoZ and a Content ID? I mean, one theoretically could just "start out" with those games..

 

[Dayner]

i dont know if CoP and ToAU are in this DVD .. the webpage didnt say it

 

[Westyle]

I think I read somewhere that it has all the expansion packs but only the registration codes for FFXI (and maybe RoZ) and that you had to buy the rest of the reg codes off the website.

 

[Negorissimo]

This DVD only contains FFXI The Original. Not even RotZ, CoP or ToAU... That's why its $4. Then you would have to buy 3 expansions and some are not even avialable in some places. ; ;

Smart move by SE...

 

[chrono fantasy]

Pfft, the summerbreeze coming soon this summer was a more exciting announcement than this one ^^

 

[Tristam Green]

This DVD only contains FFXI The Original. Not even RotZ, CoP or ToAU... That's why its $4. Then you would have to buy 3 expansions and some are not even avialable in some places. ; ;

Smart move by SE...

The actual DVD only contains code for FFXI, or the registration code for it? Because a DVD could easily hold code for all four games, PoL, and Tetra Master and just not come with the reg. codes for them.

That makes more sense to tell the truth, since FFXI "started" with the original game, a "starter set" would come only with the original build (a fully-updated original build lolz).

 

[Sharpe]

This DVD only contains FFXI The Original. Not even RotZ, CoP or ToAU... That's why its $4. Then you would have to buy 3 expansions and some are not even avialable in some places. ; ;

Smart move by SE...

I doubt that very much. CoP and RotZ were never released seperately in Europe. Doing this would mean EU people using it couldn't carry on anyway.

 

[Lavi]

I think WoW did the same thing. You can get WoW without any expansions and a free trial period from any best buy for $1.99. It's probably just to compete with that and similar offers since all the money to be made now is mainly from monthly fees.

 

[Sharpe]

I think WoW did the same thing. You can get WoW without any expansions and a free trial period from any best buy for $1.99. It's probably just to compete with that and similar offers since all the money to be made now is mainly from monthly fees.

It's £4.99 for this starter pack in the UK, £14.99 for 2007 edition. If you only get FFXI and no expansions here then a) you can't play after unless they allow you to buy expansions online and b) even if they do no-one will buy it as the 3 expansions will most likely cost more than £10.

 

[Pastry]

What a bad marketing scheme... It doesn't say anything on that website about the starter pack coming with the expansions and knowing SE, its probably safe to assume it truly doesn't.

 

[Zoner]

From the 1up.com interview:

CRUNCHY FACTOIDS:

Wings of the Goddess will ship simultaneously for Japan, North America (that means you too, Canada), and Europe on PC, PS2 (as well as being compatible with PS3), and Xbox 360 in Winter 2007 (meaning before the end of 2007).
All three versions will be identical, despite the different names for each territory's version.
A new standalone version of FFXI will be available at select outlets soon for the low cost of $3.99. The entire data of FFXI and each expansion pack will be included, but gamers--whose trial period only lasts for 30 days--will only be able to access the expansion areas by purchasing additional serial codes to register the expansion packs.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161097

 

[Xalioniaf]

Doesn't every new FFXI account come with 1 month free anyway?

 

[Tristam Green]

Yep. This makes good sense to me, and I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner.

Sure, they made money on the Vana'diel Collection, being it boxed all the expansions together, but those also came with those activation codes for those expansions.

It just begs the question of what is going to be the better deal for new players:

Let's consider.

Original FFXI+RoZ at PC release was what, maybe $50.00 (PC)? Subtract the $4.99 for this "starter set"'s price, and that leaves $45.00, which makes the price for Rise of the Zilart in-box. Add the price of Chains of Promathia, in-box, another $40.00/$50.00? Then Treasures of Aht Urhgan, another $40.00. That totals....$140.00 for all the expansions and games (if you started initially with only FFXI+RoZ).

Vanadiel Collection, as I purchased in 05 = $40.00, soonafter went to $30.00. Included (with activation codes) RoZ and CoP. So subtract the $4.99 and that leaves $35.00, divide by 2 for RoZ and CoP base prices (in context of the V Collection).... $17.50 each. Only external expenditure is Treasures of Aht Urhgan....$40.00.

Vana'diel Collection 2006 = includes ALL expansions with codes for EACH, now at the cheapass price (I've seen as low as $20.00). Subtract the $4.99, leaves $15.00 total, for three expansions. = $5.00 per expansion.

Now, this comes in, with all game data, but no activations for any expansion, for the dirt-price of $4.99. Makes you wonder how much SE will charges for activation codes per expansion? Can anyone quantify this for me?




Seems to me the Vana'diel Collection (unless they're wholly phasing it out) is still the best way to go.

 

[Xalioniaf]

Seems to me the Vana'diel Collection (unless they're wholly phasing it out) is still the best way to go.

They'll probably release Vana'diel collection 2008 (the last one was 2007 btw) sometime after WotG is released, but I don't think they'll phase out 2007 completely.