Is 1.18 the final straw?

[Lilith]

Uhh, highly unlikely.
Yeah, a negative 4.5 billion yen cash flow is pretty nice, sure.

The sale of the game (physically) didn't give them a negative 4.5 Billion. It's the cost to make the game. The release didn't compensate all of the costs thus a negative.
I don't know about the costs of keeping servers up and such, hard to make a balance.

I worry a bit about people getting a bit too hyped up for 1.18. I mean, once again, do we actually KNOW what will all be in it? From what I could tell, it'll be auto-attack (maybe?), a couple tweaks to battle system, some dungeons and Ifrit. Oh and the encampments. I'm not saying those aren't all great things! I'm definitely looking forward to it!... It just seems that some people expect 1.18 to be the MAJOR patch that will completely overhaul the game and add jobs and such. To call Patch 1.18 FFXIV's last chance to redeem itself is a bit crazy in my opinion. There's still TONS of things they have planned out that will not be in 1.18 from what I can tell.

I mean maybe I'm wrong! I dunno! I'd LOVE to see a bunch of stuff added... I just don't want to get my hopes up. I like to be optimistic, but I think you can go a bit too far.

I'm, personally, not expecting the holy grail to be in this patch (well, I do have my coconuts ready until the chocobo's are out). What I do think is that this patch and the one(s) before the end of the summer will matter!