Yoshida on "the dangers of going free-to-play"

[HoneyBiscuit]

You can say the same thing about cash shops.

The same can't actually be said.

"When you got F2P, you cant make money from the games content itself. . ."

First sentence of what you quoted, says why the same cannot be said of a cash shop. A cash shop is additional income in a subscription based game. It's only F2P games that can't profit off of content. They don't have to make profit from the cash shop in order for the game to go on. In fact they could sell one thing on the cash shop and continue development because it's not necessary for the games success. Items are required in F2P shops. They are not required in a subscription games shop.

He's basing this off of 400 likes? That's really what he determines whether or not something is wanted by the community? Oughh..

He made the choice because demand was high. And as an example, he mentioned when they were getting questions for the letter from the producer, that was one of the questions. That question received 400 likes. But that question was made under the pretense that items would be sold, since it asks "when will we be able to start" and not just "will we be able to." Interest in purchasing items was measured before that question was asked and before it got the response that it did. Just because more people didn't like it, doesn't mean they don't want items sold to them, but they were not interested in the answer. You make it sound as if there's 400 people out there that want items, and that's what made him decide. Right there on the spot.

I'd also say 400 likes on these forums is also pretty impressive.