Originally Posted by
Voltyblast
As much as I might be thinking in the worst possible ways about this, I think this statement explains it all
There you have it: that's the real reason behind the gated content in my opinion, as new players won't be able to get to the expansion content in time within the free month and making them pay for another month or two if it's taking too much time.
I mean, I still hardly believe that it's for lore reasons that the expansion is gated: not even all JRPGs are that gated in terms of content (well, at least those who allow free exploration), but I think this one pretty much explains why the gating. I might be wrong on this and this might be the most pessimistic way of thinking at things, but who would gain for doing all this?
Definitely not the new player if you can catch my drift.