I wouldn't be surprised if 8.0 gives Shadowbringers for free

With stormblood becoming free in 6.5 im kinda noticing a new pattern forming of each old expansion slowly being given for free to free trial users
I wouldn't be surprised if it goes like this
8.0 - shadowbringers becomes free
9.0 endwalker given for free
10.0 might be either entire game becoming free to play or they keep on dripfeeding each previous expansion to free trial

"Dripfeeing" each old expansion isn't a bad idea nor a bad business model when you consider it's supposed to incentives you to buy the paid content in order to avoid spoilers. You have seen the conclusion of the SB MSQ but who's the guy that appears at the end of it? What's going on with the scions falling unconscious one after another? The player is teased to know what's going on but it's behind a paywall. At that point they are already invested in the game and are left with two options:

1 - Wait until the next expansion is free
2 - Pay it and enjoy the fun :)

To my knowledge, once you buy a paid expansion, there's no going back. There's no reverting back to the free trial status. Even if you dropped the game and went inactive for years, and the content you stopped at became free, when you return you'll have to sub. You'll realize that you have fallen into the trap (Not really) and the only way forward with your account is to pay the subscription and possibly buy the latest expansion standard edition to gain access to more stuff, or you could start anew and forget about your previous account, character, and memories you have made with it.
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In short, I don't mind SE giving free expansions to the free trial. As long as we don't get an increase in cash shop items and a decrease in content quality, then worrying about their financial is something they should do rather than me. I'm here to have fun and enjoy the quality I paid for, not worry about company sales.

True enough, but personally my main concern is the game might entirely pivot to free to play model sooner or later when the population starts inevitably dropping off , it might not be 10.0 but sooner or later it's bound to happen- no game lasts forever, especially when people are quite averse to paying subscriptions for a MMORPG nowadays without it being a mmo from famous franchises like final fantasy or Warcraft or elder scrolls
And if it does become free to play well we certainly could safely expect it at that point to have a even more filled with stuff cash shop

The main problem is that if a free trial players know the next expansion will eventually be free, then they could be patient enough to wait instead of paying when they otherwise would.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

The main problem is that if a free trial players know the next expansion will eventually be free, then they could be patient enough to wait instead of paying when they otherwise would.

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At that point they're not going to be paying customers in the first place. StB throws a huge hook too at the end of the expansion. Being able to ignore that and wait out a fairly long duration means they aren't as invested in the story enough to feel the need to make a purchase within a reasonable amount of time.

The game gets too expensive if you're expected to buy every single expansion, It would just be a bad look to see a ~$300 price tag, so slowly turning them to free content prevents that from happening.

Every MMO does this over time, the only expansions you should have to pay for are the current ones and the previous one.

It's good that XIV is moving into modern times.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

The game gets too expensive if you're expected to buy every single expansion, It would just be a bad look to see a ~$300 price tag, so slowly turning them to free content prevents that from happening.

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You aren't expected to do that - unless you are playing for years and buy each expansion when it first appears.
Buying the latest expansion gives you access to all the earlier ones too, so a new player will just have to buy the base game plus whatever the latest expansion is at the time to have access to the whole game.

They love their predictable cycles so the earliest you can expect that isn't in 8.0, but 9.0.

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Originally Posted by ReynTime

They love their predictable cycles so the earliest you can expect that isn't in 8.0, but 9.0.

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Expanding the free trial every two expansions will work pretty well. It makes buying an expansion seem worth it due to the amount of content locked behind it, but the sheer amount of free content will also act as a great marketing scheme to pull new players in.