Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV directors muse on how to maintain a 'forever game'

And plenty of other stories from this week's events at Melbourne's International Games Week.

Final Fantasy XIV’s Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida interviewed by presenter Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen.

Compare the pair: Both are mass-multiplayer online role playing games. Both launched within a year of each other, based on popular video game intellectual property. Both also have huge player bases that have grown over the past decade.

And both the Directors of Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV presented on their past 10 years at Melbourne International Games Week, painting similar pictures, but with a few interesting differences.

While neither is cracking NewZoo's current top 10 monthly most played games, both behemoth titles are part of the broader 'forever games' trend. These are games that launched nearly a decade ago and have retained their player base for so long that it's now starting to raise questions as to whether they are stealing player time from other newer title launches. Elder Scrolls Online has a player base of 24 million, and Final Fantasy XIV has 61 mill…