Strike while the iron is hot Square!

[Roris]

2 million registered users of which 500k log in every day were the last official ARR numbers a couple of months ago, note the registered part, as in people who simply bought or already owned the game and have an account but aren't necessarily still subbed. We'll see how the upcoming census goes if it even shows real sub numbers this time.

[Jaykos]

ESO has a very different player-base, it's not direct competence, and i'm sure those numbers are just an occasional peak or the number of registered accounts (not subscribed), i have played it, and it's a disgrace for the MMO genre and the franchise... but you can be a vampire or a werewolf, guess the twilight fan base will keep it alive and p2p.

And ffxiv is at 2m+, well, that's what SE says.

ESO is at 772,374 subscriptions as of July

Bolded since you had difficulty understanding the post.

[Nukocafe]

With the announcement of the new WoW expansion release date, many players are unsubscribing

Oh you mean all those rude self entitled WOW players will return to WOW?

[Fendred]

I know this is just bait, but credit where it's due. WoW has been bleeding subscribers for years, long before the drought. XIV got and kept it's subscribers through it's own merits.

To be fair, subscription numbers are dropping for FFXIV:ARR, but they were temporarily hidden behind a wave of ps4 players entering the game. It hasn't so much stabilized as had releases on three different systems. Essentially FFXIV is living (at the moment) off of grab-bagging whoever they can to come play the game.

That being said, yes, FFXIV: ARR is one of the more successful MMORPGs to come out for a while, but only in terms of financial stability. It isn't doing anything particularly new or interesting gameplay wise, so I don't know how they plan to make it last in a market where the vast majority of players have grown tired of the norm.

[HakuroDK]

Oh you mean all those rude self entitled WOW players will return to WOW?

You know, as much as I HATE to say it because I think this game deserves all of the success it's getting, thank goodness a lot of the rude folks will be migrating back. Blizzard can keep their ilk.

[TouchandFeel]

Remember when WoW was good? So do I.
RIP WoTLK.

It was Cataclysm that was the nail in the coffin for me. Wrath dug the grave though.

[Fendred]

You know, as much as I HATE to say it because I think this game deserves all of the success it's getting, thank goodness a lot of the rude folks will be migrating back. Blizzard can keep their ilk.

What makes you think they all come from World of Warcraft? Its not isolated to any one MMORPG. There are so many games like WoW they could have come from any of the four winds.

[Mcshiggs]

You know, as much as I HATE to say it because I think this game deserves all of the success it's getting, thank goodness a lot of the rude folks will be migrating back. Blizzard can keep their ilk.

Quite a few of the rude folks I come across are from that XI game.

[Fendred]

It was Cataclysm that was the nail in the coffin for me. Wrath dug the grave though.

Yeah, it was. They tried to do something interesting by revamping the old areas, but in the process they couldn't preserve the leveling experience, the story went completely south, and end game required a much needed revamp to re-energize the community's interest in raiding that simply never showed up.

On a side note, it is a problem if this game can't hold a WoW player, because WoW players make up the vast majority of the player base in the MMORPG market. Practically the entire MMORPG market has played WoW at some point, and if WoW can't keep them, then what hope does FFXIV's end game have for holding their interest by doing the exact same thing (lockouts, only strat = tank and spank, etc)?

FFXIV shouldn't be aspiring to be World of Warcraft. It needs to aspire to be anything, but World of Warcraft. It should be aspiring to be a good multiplayer Final Fantasy Game revolving around group tactics that let different combinations of jobs tackle encounters in unique and interesting ways.

[Divinemight]

Doomsday gang is doomsday gang. They have nothing to worry about. WoW just lost almost entire Aisan market (China to be specific) because of arrogance and lack of support to one of their biggest region.

On other hand, S/E is able to open up market for Chinese version of FF14 and introduced a paying model that is suiting Chinese needs. S/E is also better at provide support at each region while Blizzard only cares about US and Europe. There is an impact, but certainly wont be as destructive as OP claims.