From Never F2P To...

[JerryBoyle]

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?

What Yoshi said is still technically correct. He will never fully go F2P, he'll instead go with the model most people use. With a sub cost and a F2P method thus hybrid. I'm not surprised, really.

[Mithent]

I'm not panicking about this; indeed, he's saying that if they ever did choose to do that then you could choose to stay on a subscription server. I do think that the aims change somewhat when designing F2P content, though - to turn a profit from subscribers you want to keep them engaged with the game, whereas for F2P, people enjoying the game is only useful insomuch as they can then be encouraged to buy things at the cash store. I wouldn't like to see the dev team having to reject ideas that wouldn't serve that aim (e.g. creating new costumes to buy in favour of new story content). Not that I think that's about to happen, of course.

[LemmingKingXXX]

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

The "had" is in bold too, glad to see that the alarmists haven't completely left since every pre-release phase between alpha and early access. On an entirely unrelated note, I'd love the ability to put two images into my signature as long as they were reasonably sized if the forum admins want to make that happen, it feels like I need to put the "No Chicken Little" sign back.

[HiirNoivl]

They'll have to do -something- with those ol' 1.0 servers.

[MrSmiley]

he said "If we had to" and "not int he work right now". I don't think there is anything to worry about.

[ShirKirakira]

I don't care for most F2P games, I just to want pay my monthly fee and be done with it, and play without being nickel and dimed for everything, and having to stop gaming to get crap off a cash shop because I ran out of XXX potions, etc.

However, a hybrid model--which had F2P servers with a cash shop, P2P servers with a subscription where everything is unlocked--I'm okay with that. As long as they keep the servers seperate. Everyone pays and plays how they want to, and you will be gaming on a server with like minded people. This I can deal with.

[DeadlySwordz]

he states, "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." The big keyword there is IF but I highly doubt they will ever go the f2p route considering loyal fans wont have a problem paying for it. Look at FFXI, its been out for 11yrs already going back to its first release on the PS2 in May 2002 in Japan. To this day it is still subscription based. And I feel FFXIV will be this way as well.

Personally, I'd rather play pay2play games. In the long run, we will have better quality content than f2p.

[Synthesis]

Noo, so this game is going to be free to play in an half year as many predicted. soo sad.

a lot of guys from my guild say its going to be F2P in year as everything else (they re experienced mmorpg players who played many other mmorpgs)!

[Cassatella]

But then if they go F2P we can buy Sephiroth as a class or minion for $250.

....and no. But anyway, with the numbers they're seeing in just the first week of launch, it could bode well for SE if they don't whore it out in the name of micro-transactions. If the game keeps getting better, and more QoL issues are addressed, then I'm sure the game will see a good community and subscriber base come out of it.

[Alerith]

Noo, so this game is going to be free to play in an half year as many predicted. soo sad.

a lot of guys from my guild say its going to be F2P in year as everything else (they re experienced mmorpg players who played many other mmorpgs)!

Highly unlikely.