Over the years, many games have tried to take on Blizzard's World of Warcraft directly. Try and stand toe-to-toe with the MMO giant. And all of them have failed.
That's not going to stop Square Enix boss Yoichi "Imperial Hot" Wada from taking a crack, though. Asked by Develop what he thought Final Fantasy XIV's chances were of challenging WoW, he says "WoW is a tough competitor, but whether you are talking about EverQuest, Ultima or Lineage there has never been a company that has a continuously successful number one and two MMO".
As in, the sequel to a big MMO has never been as big as the original.
Taking that to heart, Wada believes that, despite WoW being "tough competition", Final Fantasy XIV could definitely become a "serious rival" to Blizzard's juggernaut.
And why not! It's always the second game in a series that tanks, not the 14th!
Final Fantasy XIV a serious WoW rival, says Wada [Develop]