Why pay a subscription?

[C-croft]

You guys do know SE is having financial difficulties right? FF11's hard mode didn't pan out for their wallets. They can't afford to make the same mistake twice. I mean they literally can't afford it.. -_-

What are you talking about? Do you mean FF14 1.0's? Or FF11, which has been their most successful title?

[Reslin]

EVE Online may be one of the hardest sandbox MMORPG out there, and granted due to that it has low subs numbers, but it never stopped gaining more players ever since it was released. Still rising as we speak.

Eve has no competitors in it's genre. No real competition anyway that's why.

As to Sidious pay to play doesn't make a game more successful than free to play. Look at LOTRO, they had a completely stable player base but moved to free to play. Why did they do it? Because they had a dying game known as dungeons and dragons online. They made it free to play in a last ditch effort to save it. They ended up making more money than they ever did when it was pay to play. So they thought, "What would happen if we do the same with our successful LOTRO? Would it make even more?" According to the devs the answer was yes. People play FFXI a decade later but there's many "Failed" mmorpgs that are also trucking years later. People still play Everquest to this day (note I'm not saying it failed.)

[Kayo]

Wtf? Sub if its fun enough to be worth your money, unsub if you dont. Stop implying the runaway RMT and bots of the game will be around all year, theyre not. They missed some common tools and will likely add them ASAP... do you really expect them to add/change the game at the snap of a finger? Hasnt even been a month!

Funny how you ask why anyone would sub then say a smart person would sub when a new patch releases. Durr, thats not new... players have been doing that for years. I myself will be doing it at the end of the month.

Good god this thread is really reaching for the top of the garbage pile isnt it? Love your last point btw, its the "best single player game in disguise" because despite it forcing you to find and interact with other players for content, and other group features like FATEs, you can still CHOOSE to be antisocial. Great logic there.

[Rikudou-Sennin]

What are you talking about? Do you mean FF14 1.0's? Or FF11, which has been their most successful title?

No I'm talking about FF11 online. That game was hard. If that was their most successful title they wouldn't be broke. BTW, I still think FF7 holds the title for most sucessful. A game they still refuse to remake.

[Alcyon_Densetsu]

Eve has no competitors in it's genre. No real competition anyway that's why.

No real competitor as we speak, but there have been some in the sandbox genre, and some quite big (such as SWG for instance). No competition is a factor, indeed, but certainly the quality of the game itself should not be dismissed, nor the stance with which CCCP approach its player base. By all means they've done it right.

[Reslin]

No real competitor as we speak, but there have been some in the sandbox genre, and some quite big (such as SWG for instance). No competition is a factor, indeed, but certainly the quality of the game itself should not be dismissed, nor the stance with which CCCP approach its player base. By all means they've done it right.

SWG was a sandbox game turned themepark which alienated it's own subscriber base. The problem with most sandbox games is that they take an attitude of "Wow! People really like my sandbox game let's include other mmorpg elements and.. well, we lost our devoted following." CCP has done right by keeping the game what it is and not deviating from their vision. EvE is a great game but the problem is this isn't a sandbox game and the market is saturated with similar titles all competing for the limelight. Nowadays you have two choices. Make the game hardcore to please the hard core gamers creating a small circle of devoted followers or appease the casuals. Most businesses opt for the latter because there simply is more casuals. You just try to make challenging content that also keeps as much of the hard core crowd as you can but asking for the company to appeal to the hardcore and only the hardcore is asking it to commit financial suicide.

[C-croft]

No I'm talking about FF11 online. That game was hard. If that was their most successful title they wouldn't be broke. BTW, I still think FF7 holds the title for most sucessful. A game they still refuse to remake.

I am pretty sure SE stated that FF11 was their most successful.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/06/2...of-all-time-is

[AjoraOak]

Generally, new content provides faster access to better gear (making old content not viable)... and they would provide say af2 for philos at a later point when content uses ilvl90 or so as the new base ilvl for normal content.

Basically, there's never any reason to ever play/pay monthly other than playing in the moment where it's harder.

[Reslin]

I am pretty sure SE stated that FF11 was their most successful.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/06/2...of-all-time-is

There's a good chance that this game may completely outdo FF11 for them. Peak users for FF11 was 500,000. This game has 1,000,000 unique users and rising (according to their recent statement.) This is double what FF11 ever has. Sure you can say "The game just came out." but when FF11 came out it only had around 200,000-300,000. They would need to lose more than 50% of their current players in order to drop below FF11's peak performance. It's a bit early to claim FF14 is going a poor direction. It seems they learned from FF11 and improved upon it.

[C-croft]

There's a good chance that this game may completely outdo FF11 for them. Peak users for FF11 was 500,000. This game has 1,000,000 unique users and rising (according to their recent statement.) This is double what FF11 ever has. Sure you can say "The game just came out." but when FF11 came out it only had around 200,000-300,000. They would need to lose more than 50% of their current players in order to drop below FF11's peak performance. It's a bit early to claim FF14 is going a poor direction. It seems they learned from FF11 and improved upon it.

Just to make sure you didn't take my post as doubting FFXIV ARR.

I am disputing the quotee's claim of FF11 tanking SE. If anything FFXIV 1.0 is part of the reason SE is tanking. Along with the smash hit(to the junk) Spirits within movie.

Probably due to subscription's bring in revenue maybe, but they sold more copies of FF7 than any other FF game. They stopped selling FF7 or the number would be even higher. They refuse to remake it. They sold 9.8 million copies of FF7 before discontinuing it.

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy

Post limit reached for the day.

I still fail to see what makes you think FF11 has caused the downfall of SE when it has brought in the most revenue to the company. Just because you push 9.8 million units, it does not mean it is the most successful. $10 a month times 100,000 is equal to a million a month. Considering it has been active for 10+ years, that's $120,000,000 minimum. That is an extreme lowball as I don't remember the sub price, and it only takes into account that only 100,000 a month for the past 'ten' years. Also, if you were to add up the 9.8 mil with the pricing for FF7, it went greatest hits in 1999 and was dropped to $20-$24. All these numbers are so basic, it's barely usable, but it should help you get the general idea.