This is Executive Producer Naoki Yoshida's final speech during the official launch of Final Fantasy XIV: ARR. Translation from Reddit below.
Dunno about you guys, but this guy is awesome. If nothing else, this guy's passion for this game alone makes me highly optimistic that this is gonna be a game to play for a long time.
This is crazy.
Before I say anything, let me first start by saying that these 3 days we had intended to use for early-access were interrupted by emergency maintenance, which resulted in PC players in North America and Europe that were really looking forward to this missing out on a lot of play time, and I would like to use this part of the presentation, which is being broadcast worldwide, to apologize for that right now. We are truly sorry.
We are about to set out on a very long journey together, and as such, I would really do hope that I can redeem myself for that mistake.
Uhm...
"Do your best!"
Uhm... It has been about 3 years since I inherited this FFXIV project. At first, well, I had never been that involved with the game, but I thought, "I can probably do something with this." And ultimately, since I really enjoy the FF series myself, I gathered the staff and we discussed the idea of re-making the game.
I remember it even now, it was December 1st and we were in a studio just like this, and the mixer room was just above me. And they were adjusting the mic that I was to use. That whole scene really left an impression on me. I was right there with the players thinking, "Can we really save this? This will be no small task."
One by one folks started giving us their support, even those people who firmly believed that it would take at least 4 to 5 years to create a solid MMORPG. We didn't waste a second and did our best not to rush the work and take our time during the planning process. We would say when handling the companies day-to-day affairs that our company is the tank. We stayed out in the front and we kept moving forward, and eventually came this far.
I can't even take credit for the creation of FFXIV:ARR. It really was thanks to the fans worldwide, our core staff here beside me, and the hundreds of other staff members who contributed but were unable to make it here tonight that we made it this far.
Honestly, I did not plan on crying here tonight, but for us, finally, FFXIV can start the first step of its true rebirth. This is no time to take a rest. We will keep focused on the next patch, the next expansion, and continue at full strength. And really, I'd like to address those FFXIV community members who I'm sure faced criticism from their friends about the fact that they stuck with FFXIV despite all its problems, to us, this 2.5, 3 years went by so quickly, but for the players it was such a long wait. Everyone at Square Enix can truly say that their hard work helped to repair any damage done to the Final Fantasy name. It is not a perfectly finished MMORPG, but we all arrived at this point together. We created this game together. We want to make this an unforgettable entry in the series that we all enjoy together and are still playing 5 years or even 10 years from now, and that all starts today.
Thank you very much.
