Okay this is what im madly curious about, and its kinda nagging at me. I assume they believe the profits coming in from the playerbase isnt sufficient to justify any further development and content costs, which is why they are doing it. However i took a look at EQ and DAOC, both games that are equally if not older.
I googled and saw EQ has had 1-2 major content patches/expansions each year, and its still going, even with a supposedly smaller playerbase than ffxi.
DAOC has an expansion coming out this year, with no apparent news on shutting down, again with a smaller playerbase.
From a very bare and uneducated assumption, this seems like its possible to keep the game going on a very small budget and have it under SE's portfolio as a cash cow.
What is different with ffxi? If someone could offer some explanation, the only thing i can think of is they wish to move their finances elsewhere into some other project.