From an interview on Dutch gaming website Gamer.nl, Producer/Director Yoshi-P talks about a number of things in FFXIV, including the reason behind postponing the official API for the game. Redditor Zanzargh was able to post a good translation of the interview in the comments. The two biggest takeaways in my opinion from this interview are the following:
Gamer.nl: In the past there was often talk about the addition of an API for add-ons, so players can add extra’s to the interface. How’s that going?
This is postponed because there’s big concerns over DPS-meters. If we would add this system in it’s current form, I’m concerned players would argue about having or not having such a dps meter. That’s why we still have to decide if the use of such a DPS meter will be made available. Currently we’re discussing about add-ons which you can use to make design changes in the interface, to have skins for example.
A half year after A Realm Reborn released, we considered implementing addons. We thought about enabling addons in the pc-version, annd later release these features for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. We realised however that this is difficult on consoles, because there’s not enough storage space on these systems.
Our biggest concern is making a notable difference between the pc-version of the game, and the game on other platforms through enabling addons. This is why we postponed this feature. It should be noted that doesn’t mean we cancelled our plans for addons, but we want to first focus on official features for the game.
Gamer.nl: As there is no API yet: what do you think of the add-ons players make themselves, like the unofficial API?
Final Fantasy 14 is also available on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, on which these unofficial add-ons are not available. Because of this, we don’t want to proactively support these alternatives as the FF14 team. As pc-gamer I’m personally not against the use of player-made addons. I do think these addons should only be used for personal enjoyment however. Sorry, I unfortunately can’t say more than that, I hope you understand.
Check out the full interview from Gamer.nl. (Source is in Dutch)
