Is the MMO sub model outdated?

[Afania]

https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/List...ng_video_games

The top titles, or highest grossing online games are either F2p, or Buy to play. This got me wondering, WoW may simply be an anomaly. As times changed, with the emergence of PS Plus and Gamepass......More MMO have become F2P.

WoW has also recently fell off while XIV lost a HUGE chunk of their Steam player-base not long ago (Not so nice news of XIV seems to be well hidden unless you are Anonymous or some internet sleuth team....).

This is why began to play XI mostly during events. I rarely touch XIV...if ever....(I did sub to check out the Island stuff.....Instant regret.....plan on going back to the free trial after that). To me, it is not justifiable to pay $13-15 for one game, when I can pay the same for hundreds of newer titles.

This is not a bash XI thread; XI is actually my favorite FF. It is just a random thought I had.

Your anti-sub model argument is fairly flawed, you are basically saying sub model is "outdated" only because 1) There are Other titles beats FFXI in terms of revenue (well, yeah, of course there are always better selling titles out there.....) 2) You personally want cheaper games, therefore all games should price based on your expectation, even if other users are perfectly willing to pay for a higher price. This is quite a flawed way to determine the optimal pricing model.

First of all, when it comes revenue the market size matters a lot.

Some of the top grossing online games in that list, such as Lineage, Honor of Kings, Dungeon Fighter, WoW etc has China/South Korea/Taiwan release which are 3 of THE biggest market for MMO. But FFXI never release in such regions officially, so that's a huge chunk of market that they aren't getting.

Lineage was also sub based MMO btw, it's a 2000(I think?) game and at that time F2P model didn't exist.

Also according to your own list, FFXI lose to FFXIV(also a sub based game), but beats FFX and FFVII(2 of most profitable single player FF title).

Therefore, I can't arrive at the conclusion that F2p or Buy to play, for sure, is better than sub based model since you can get the opposite conclusion simply comparing FF series sales. I think you probably arrive at such conclusion because you personally feel FFXI is more expensive than other games and you want it cheaper, not because there sales data proving such conclusion is in fact true.

2) whether one group of customer find the price justifiable or not is irrelevant when it comes to revenue generation. The playing experience that FFXI provides can't be found in other games on Game Pass so the potential customer is still there, willing to pay for such price.

It's the same reason why newer AAA titles cost $60 and people still buy them despite there are cheaper non-AAA games, because some customer prefers AAA experience.

Even if you don't find $13-15 justifiable, other people still pays that price. It means you aren't the target audience, that's it.

Btw, I'm personally a fan of Game Pass and have active membership from time to time depending on titles available. Although I like it, it doesn't replace FFXI when it comes to video game entertainment even though it's cheaper. Because the value of a video game is not just the price, but the experience too. There are only a few games that I want to play on Game Pass, because I prefer more niche/unique titles than mainstream/popular titles, and Game Pass frequently doesn't have these.

Once I'm done with whatever I want to play on Game Pass I cancel sub. Therefore Game Pass doesn't really replace FFXI IMO. If I don't want to play a game, having that game available for $1 or even free isn't going to make me play it.