From Never F2P To...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127378-Final-Fantasy-14-Team-Didnt-Expect-So-Many-Players-PAX-2013

If you read this article yoshi says they may go hybrid one day with p2p and f2p servers. The fact that he said he would NEVER go f2p to now saying this is concerning. I dont want to see this game go f2p. The 180° shift in such little time is not a good sign. What do you guys think?

please yoshi p keep your promise don't go free to play

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Originally Posted by Syfin

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127378-Final-Fantasy-14-Team-Didnt-Expect-So-Many-Players-PAX-2013

If you read this article yoshi says they may go hybrid one day with p2p and f2p servers. The fact that he said he would NEVER go f2p to now saying this is concerning. I dont want to see this game go f2p. The 180° shift in such little time is not a good sign. What do you guys think?

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I myself lik P2P, it helps weed the population out if you get what I mean.

Since Yoshi adamantly sided with a subscription model long before the game attracted the massive numbers we're seeing now (thus the server issues) I think it's safe to say things will remain subscription based.

This is one game I want to stay pay to play, too many F2P games out there.

Going F2P would be nothing but a sell out, comon Yoshi you don't need this.. the game is already becoming very popular and will provide the company with great income with the monthly sub model alone, you don't need to soil FF XIV's name with F2P crap.

i think it'll stay p2p.

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"We stuck with subscriptions because we wanted a stable amount of money to pay developers to develop patches on time. We didn't want to get into a situation where we couldn't afford to make a patch," he continued. "As a producer, I of course will be watching how the money flows and will evaluate the situation. If we had to change to a free to play model, we would probably offer a hybrid model with free to play servers and subscriptions servers, but it's not something we have planned right now."

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I wish there was a spank to play model sometimes...

we behide you yoshi P so keep you faith strong you fix those bug we get play.

First of all i dont get the whole scaremongering over f2p. Done properly a f2p or b2p model can work out really well for an mmo. The main problem being the fact that is has to be done properly, so players arent feeling like they're being nickel & dimed *cough*swtor*cough*.

A couple good examples of mmos handling f2p properly in my opinion, are Rift and Tera. Regardless of your personal views of said mmos themselves, the way they handled the f2p transisition, as in not restricting content access, and offering mostly cosmetic items and character slots on the cash shop is how f2p should be. There's also been truly horrible examples of mmos going p2w after converting to f2p, but that doesnt mean ALL f2p games are bad.

I truly hope it doesnt come down to the game going hybrid f2p/sub, but if it came down to a choice of either the game shutting down or going hybrid, id rather put up with some f2p servers if it meants keeping the game i love going.

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Originally Posted by Syfin

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127378-Final-Fantasy-14-Team-Didnt-Expect-So-Many-Players-PAX-2013

If you read this article yoshi says they may go hybrid one day with p2p and f2p servers. The fact that he said he would NEVER go f2p to now saying this is concerning. I dont want to see this game go f2p. The 180° shift in such little time is not a good sign. What do you guys think?

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Is this what happens after he finds out that the game he produced didn't go so well? Honestly? It's shameful to even think of going F2P after 1.) saying they'd never go F2P with FFXIV and 2.) this horrendous launch of a "revision" MMORPG. Pathetic.

who knows what he meant by that, could just be something like trial servers where you can get to 15-20 for free and decide if you want to buy the game.

Ya except he doesn't have the last word over that and the president does and with how much money they dumped into this game it will never go free to play.

If it goes into a hybrid I hope they split it down the servers. So f2p get their own servers and p2p stick with their own. Then I have no issue whatsovere. But yeah I really really hope that p2p is what remains.

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Originally Posted by ruskie

If it goes into a hybrid I hope they split it down the servers. So f2p get their own servers and p2p stick with their own. Then I have no issue whatsovere. But yeah I really really hope that p2p is what remains.

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Thats what he said he'd do IF they decided to go f2p, keep seperate sub and f2p servers. I think people are taking it out of context. He was probably asked if he would ever go f2p, or if he had changed his mind, and gave what he thought was an answer most people would like.

Actually what Yoshi said was, "We stuck with subscriptions because we wanted a stable amount of money to pay developers to develop patches on time. We didn't want to get into a situation where we couldn't afford to make a patch," he continued. "As a producer, I of course will be watching how the money flows and will evaluate the situation. If we had to change to a free to play model, we would probably offer a hybrid model with free to play servers and subscriptions servers, but it's not something we have planned right now."

In other words unless things go terribly wrong and they start bleeding subscribers they will not be going to F2P. F2P is a contingency plan if the game fails. WoW even has a plan for this type of thing and I have absolutely no doubt that they would go F2P to keep that cash cow running. So essentially his stance did not change, and was simply stating that unless things went bad there will be no F2P model or any variation of it.

people are jump ship on blizzard and come here because we give cookies and yawn to all new miq'ota alway

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Originally Posted by Stormsoul

who knows what he meant by that, could just be something like trial servers where you can get to 15-20 for free and decide if you want to buy the game.

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This is exactly what Rift did and look at it now.

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Originally Posted by Syfin

This is exactly what Rift did and look at it now.

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A f2p mmo with no content restrictions at all? Yup, sounds horrible

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Originally Posted by Supersomething

Actually what Yoshi said was...

In other words unless things go terribly wrong and they start bleeding subscribers they will not be going to F2P. F2P is a contingency plan if the game fails. WoW even has a plan for this type of thing and I have absolutely no doubt that they would go F2P to keep that cash cow running. So essentially his stance did not change, and was simply stating that unless things went bad there will be no F2P model or any variation of it.

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Wrong. He said he would NEVER go f2p. What he stated there was what Rift essentially said. They did not plan on going f2p at the beginning. Then slowly they started talking about it. The game has only been out a week and his stance changed from never to if they had to.

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Originally Posted by SpayedNeko

First of all i dont get the whole scaremongering over f2p. Done properly a f2p or b2p model can work out really well for an mmo. The main problem being the fact that is has to be done properly, so players arent feeling like they're being nickel & dimed *cough*swtor*cough*.

A couple good examples of mmos handling f2p properly in my opinion, are Rift and Tera. Regardless of your personal views of said mmos themselves, the way they handled the f2p transisition, as in not restricting content access, and offering mostly cosmetic items and character slots on the cash shop is how f2p should be. There's also been truly horrible examples of mmos going p2w after converting to f2p, but that doesnt mean ALL f2p games are bad.

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While I have not played Rift since the transition to F2P, I did try Tera after their transition and I have to disagree with you. First, I will never support an MMO that produces lottery boxes. The only way I'll buy a cash shop item is if I know exactly what I'm getting, not shell out possibly hundreds of dollars for a CHANCE at getting what I want. Second, all their updates are just adding new stuff to the cash shop. There were no content updates that you didn't have to pay extra for or win some kind of lottery the entire time I played. Going F2P, no matter how it's done, ruins an MMO every single time in my opinion. As long as there is a sub-based MMO out there, I won't bother with F2P.

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Originally Posted by Stormsoul

who knows what he meant by that, could just be something like trial servers where you can get to 15-20 for free and decide if you want to buy the game.

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That's not free to play - Free to Play is Free to Play. Freemium is what you described and almost never work well because the games are never designed well enough to justify paying a sub after playing early game for free, those are usually cash grab games.

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Originally Posted by Syfin

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127378-Final-Fantasy-14-Team-Didnt-Expect-So-Many-Players-PAX-2013

If you read this article yoshi says they may go hybrid one day with p2p and f2p servers. The fact that he said he would NEVER go f2p to now saying this is concerning. I dont want to see this game go f2p. The 180° shift in such little time is not a good sign. What do you guys think?

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He said if they <had> to that is the model they would do, way to take things out of context OP. Jesus Christ.

Somebody Sticky this thread IMMEDIATELY!! , I hope Yoshi responds to this interview.

Going F2P is NEVER a good thing in my book , and to think we'd have to hear it from the horse's mouth.....

To be fair he said "IF" it was to come to that point , but it is still disheartening to hear it from him. :(

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Originally Posted by Syfin

Wrong. He said he would NEVER go f2p. What he stated there was what Rift essentially said. They did not plan on going f2p at the beginning. Then slowly they started talking about it. The game has only been out a week and his stance changed from never to if they had to.

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Would you care to link the article where he expressed verbatim that he said they would never go F2P? I have googled a few different phrases and the only things I come up with are articles such as this. http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/yos...-subscription/

And this article with his full reply not paraphrased: http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/17/fi...lay-exclusive/

He does not expressly state that F2P is completely off the table but expresses that he felt that P2P was the correct model for SE's MMO.

This is nothing new. Yoshida said in 2012 that he was considering F2P as an alternative business plan

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Originally Posted by Yoshi P

Of course I am very interested in F2P as an alternative business plan, and I will continue to look into it. However adopting a F2P model means changing certain aspects of the game design in order to fit to the model since the prices customers have to pay for F2P are different to those they pay for subscription-based games. Therefore, if we do decide to change the business model in the future, it will also be necessary for us to adjust the game design so that it works accordingly.

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Source: http://www.videogamer.com/pc/ff14/ne..._audience.html

the game is doing really well, therefore f2p?

that's a bit of backwards logic by SE, i realize f2p is beginning to dominate the gaming market and there have been quite a number of studies and testimonials showing that it's profitable, but is it more profitable than having a full p2p game in the long term?

in terms of games with a cash shop, the only one that i know is doing really well is GW2

and that's really about it, i do wonder though if yoshida is considering making FFXIV F2P because of WoW's sharp decline in subscribers and GW2's overwhelming initial success

He never said he wouldnt go F2P, he said that the company didnt have any investors they needed to pay back a return to immediately after launch, thus allowing them to persue a P2P model until the company deemed it reasonable/necessary to explore another model of revenue (B2P/F2P). I dont have the link at hand but he never ruled out other methods, just that they werent interested in anything but P2P at the moment.

Surely I can't be the only one that is now completely over F2P titles after playing a number of them and realizing just how insidious the development behind the cash shops really is. I know we'll give most of the game away for free to get these junkies hooked and then we'll slug them 10-20 times the normal subscription costs for them to participate in any end game content ... brilliant.

love how people spread rumours on these crap websites getting people like the OP and everyone else that reads the threads made by them going and believing the rumours. Yoshi has stated he will never go F2P that he will shut the game down first before he goes F2P so not sure why anyone believes that tabloid bull crap from a 5th rate website.

If people are willing to pay then what reason would they have to go free? its when games are on the verge or failing they need something to keep their players. a few dozen people complaining wont end the game

Hell, if anything this game needs more ways to pay your subscription fee. Pay through PSN, and where are our timecards? F2P never works, always turns into pay to win and pay to win means they limit access to content unless you continually shell out cash. Or they offer armor and weapons that you would normally have to work for. Why grind the dungeon 5 times or more for that ONE badass piece of armor when you can just buy it for 2 bucks?

Idk..I WOULD love to see just one game that was F2P with cash shops, you could only buy vanity stuff and extra inventory space, etc..and every time new content was added you would have a choice to buy it or not. No buying power at all, only new content (pay once, raid all you like) and yknow sweet looking vanity armor and whatnot.

Maybe someday I guess..idk maybe there is flaws in that setup as well lol.

What most people - and apparently even Yoshida - don't seem to understand, is that going free-to-play doesn't mean you simply start putting up micro transactions for all the existing content. For that business model to work, the whole game has to be designed around it. F2P game design is all about making the playerbase want to spend money, regardless of whether or not they enjoy the actual content of the game. Condition them early that paying for ingame-stuff will give them a great advantage and put them above other players. Only very few players will buy into this while the majority will pay little to nothing at all. Thus the devs have to go after those who spend ("whales"), then over the course of the game slowly raise the amount of money needed to achieve those advantages. Kinda like drugs really.

Most people seem to think that going F2P means instant success. But there are more failed F2P games than failed subscription or B2P games, simply because didn't exploit the "whales" enough. Development costs don't go down for F2P. So if the majority pays way less for your game, other players have to spend way more. And I'm talking way, way more. Unreasonably more. And it's not some rich oil sheik who's going to pay it, it's going to be your average guy who just doesn't grasp how much money he's spending for nothing of lasting value.

No F2P please.

There's a reason games go F2P and that's cause they suck.

I will quit if the game goes f2p.

Why not B2P?. But after trying out the WoWdification that is 2.0. I really hope it goes F2P. XIV offers nothing different from WoW, Rift, etc. Besides being FF theme, and having a horrible instanced world.

I hope they never go F2P. Not only it bring childish behavior and communities in, it is always bad press for the game. I can see it now. FFXIV - Realm Reborn 2nd Launch after a failed start now gone F2P. I hope it never go F2P, we don't need F2P, the game is totally pack and doing very well.

Yoshi-P means that if ever the time came that FFXIV did not have enough subs to pay the bills, that he would use SOME of the servers for a F2P environment, while the REST of the servers remained P2P.

in other words, those that enjoy P2P would STILL have P2P servers to play on, while those that enjoy F2P servers would have F2P servers to play on, but all of that would ONLY happen if there are no longer ENOUGH PPL SUBBING to the game anymore to bring any money in to pay the bills...

i dont get why this is so hard to understand...

If this goes free to play, pay to win or any of that nonsense it'll no longer be a game I want to play. I happily stumped up subs fees for 1.0 and am happily signed up to pay them for 2.0. However I will never put a penny into a cash shop, nor play a game which requires you to in order to compete in any way or have access to certain features.

free to play sucks ass they better keep it p2p i dont want any stupid ass OP mall items or dumb shit in this game! p2p forever if theres to many people increase server captivity to hold alot more players think of the future not just our numbers right now increase it more then what we need