I wasn’t expecting Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida to directly call out World of Warcraft during a media Q&A at the MMO’s Berlin Fan Festival, but that’s exactly what happened.
When asked about how the team plans to modernise Final Fantasy 14’s housing system—one which is regularly criticised for a lack of supply to meet demand and a fairly obtuse UI to boot—Yoshida’s first response was: “I get the feeling that what you really want to ask is, well WoW has come up with this amazing housing system. How about [Final Fantasy] 14?”
Blizzard’s own MMO has finally taken its first stab at player housing, and I do admit I’ve been looking on with some envy. It looks far easier to wield and far more customisable with freely scaling and placing objects, and that’s something that Yoshida has absolutely taken notice of.
“We have immense respect for the World of Warcraft team,” Yoshida said. “So when we saw that the World of Warcraft team announced the new housing system—and they said specifically that they looked to 14 and incorporated things which they wanted to surpass us in—I think that in itself is a great honour for us to hear.”