Right back to FFXI

[Sovereign]

in September, people said that the game was going to die soon. In November, same thing. Turn of the year, same thing. April, same freaking thing. Now? Same thing. It hasn't happened yet and I don't think it will happen anytime soon. Today's patch brought back a TON of people and I actually had 3 friends re-join the game since all they needed was Auto attack and a decent amount of content. They got what they wanted. The others are waiting on more FF-ish content (Chocobos, airships and jobs) I don't see the game losing players at all compared to how many it is gaining.

Right now, the game regaining players doesn't generate any revenue whatsoever. Square Enix is still a for-profit corporation, and while they may be willing to just eat the loss for a while, eventually the product has to make money. The longer it takes, the more money is required to make up all the sunk costs. In one year I just don't think there have been enough major changes to warrant enough people paying for the product to sustain it, and it will inevitably die out if it can't make up it's losses and start to generate some cash. Yeah people have been saying that the product is dying for a while, but that doesn't change the simple facts of the matter. Products that don't generate revenue or provide competitive advantage have no business in a business.

[Dubont]

Right now, the game regaining players doesn't generate any revenue whatsoever. Square Enix is still a for-profit corporation, and while they may be willing to just eat the loss for a while, eventually the product has to make money. The longer it takes, the more money is required to make up all the sunk costs. In one year I just don't think there have been enough major changes to warrant enough people paying for the product to sustain it, and it will inevitably die out if it can't make up it's losses and start to generate some cash. Yeah people have been saying that the product is dying for a while, but that doesn't change the simple facts of the matter. Products that don't generate revenue or provide competitive advantage have no business in a business.

I don't think you're understanding. Ok, this may be hard for you so bare with me. This patch brought back a ton of players. 1.19 will bring back A LOT more and 1.20 will bring in even more. Now, what does this mean? This means that FFXIV...is getting an actual player base. SE, according to our speculation, is planning on starting the sub fee after 1.20 or 1.21. Now, if all of the players that came back from the 1.18, 1.19, and 1.20 stay, which the majority will, then FFXIV will have a subscription base. This will mean money for SE and it will probably take a year or two for the company to recover their losses, but things can only look up at that point. The reason FFXIV hasn't failed yet is because SE made this game themselves. Unlike games like..LOTRO, the game wasn't given shared between different companies. This is all SE's game and they depict when the game is finished. Currently, they aren't ready to throw in the towel just yet and after seeing the player results from today's patch, I doubt they will be ready to give up any time soon.

[Sovereign]

I don't think you're understanding. Ok, this may be hard for you so bare with me. This patch brought back a ton of players. 1.19 will bring back A LOT more and 1.20 will bring in even more. Now, what does this mean? This means that FFXIV...is getting an actual player base. SE, according to our speculation, is planning on starting the sub fee after 1.20 or 1.21. Now, if all of the players that came back from the 1.18, 1.19, and 1.20 stay, which the majority will, then FFXIV will have a subscription base. This will mean money for SE and it will probably take a year or two for the company to recover their losses, but things can only look up at that point. The reason FFXIV hasn't failed yet is because SE made this game themselves. Unlike games like..LOTRO, the game wasn't given shared between different companies. This is all SE's game and they depict when the game is finished. Currently, they aren't ready to throw in the towel just yet and after seeing the player results from today's patch, I doubt they will be ready to give up any time soon.

If you want to insult me directly then I have no interest is continuing our discussion. Have a nice evening.