What was the reason given for closing console versions of ffxi?

[Seillan]

They can tweak numbers, adjust data, and probably change or adjust game scripts (that is, things like what NPCs do when you talk to them etc, since that's probably done in a simple script language that isn't compiled like the game engine code is). But they can't do more major things like develop totally new battle contents or fix bugs that require altering the core code.

It's not really that hard to see.They worked around limitations by doing such things as adding seperate bags (vs making our existing bags bigger). By doing this you limit the amount of memory that needs to be used, since you can never have more than your inventory + 1 other bag open at the same time. Note that you can't move items between two different bags, it has to go through your inventory first. This is because it doesn't load in more item data than is necessary for what I described. If they made our bags 150+ slots, the PS2 wouldn't be able to handle it because that's too much memory being eaten up by the item data.

Also, ps2 and to a lesser extent xbox 360 have not been running without probelms the last few years. Seems every patch they implement new countermeasures against a screen blackout on the ps2 (which is a crash, and probably caused by memory being maxed out)

Well, I'm not here trying to say it was a great idea and will mean great things for FFXI after RoV or anything, just pointing out the reasoning SE gave. It just means that they can make further QoL adjustments, similar to the one where they expanded the number of simultaneous RoE objectives you can have active at once, and be able to take them further than if they had to hold back for the consoles. For example, we may see the addition of another quest to further expand inventory space again (or a baseline expansion of space that the currently existing methods of expanding inventory will add onto).

Those are good points. I wonder though if a compromise could have been made where instead of making it impossible for PS2/360 users to log on and play, they could have announced that any future QoL adjustments that exceeded the memory limitations would only be made made available to PC users? Obviously you'd be gimped while playing on the consoles, but at least people would still have the option. Granted, I don't really know anything about the technical specifics so I guess it might have been more trouble than it's worth; Just spitballing. I'd be lying if I said I'm not a little worried about the hit the population might take once support is ended. Something like that can't be good for the longevity of the game.