Cash shop confirmed

[Dwill]

While true, SE should already know that a game with 500k subs can fund several games. And unless Yoshida has severely twisted the words on how good the game is doing, it should at least have more than that.

Well, I guess for me the whole issue is that subscription and cash shop is two different ways to fund a game. And dipping your fingers in both is a big no for me.

While it sure brings in a certain amount of profit, it by no means can fund several games. Games nowadays cost a huge amount to create and a MMO of this size is costly to maintain. In my opinion, as long as the cash in this game stays for vanity purposes, it will be healthy for the game and the company as a whole.

[Tayolynn]

Although I'm not liking this idea of having a cash shop, but I kinda expected that this would happen eventually, so I'm not too shocked at this decision. Although with this introduction, some people may be peeved about this because this may be a leeway to future exploitation. Some vanity things may be minor now, and there may be a good amount of people that would say "to hell with that, I'm not forking more than my sub fee for that stuff." But SE may already forecast that maybe 20%, 30% of those opposing people will cave in to buying things here and there when they see a bunch of people running around in cash shop vanity. But hey, more money for SE. Let's just hope that it's put to good use. (coughcough personalhousing cough ridiculousdifficultyforcraftedvanitygearandfurniture cough)

And like what other's have forecasted, SE may escalate to selling things that are super uber cool, like capes, character effects, WINGS (which I would be sad because I'd love to have wings) and more cooler looking mounts and eventually, items that will be seen as play to win.

Other charges would deem understandable. Fantasia potions to change your race and possibly a feature to change your name. The future expansion will probably have a price on that as well. Which brings me to cash shop vanity items that I'm not that too surprised at, just as long as they keep it to a minimum and not have the same amount or close to the amount of vanity things as a F2P game would have.

[Giantbane]

I think the weirdest thing about this is people are pissed at a Business wanting to make money. Here's a popular argument:

"I should be able to obtain everything in game, I pay a sub fee."

Answer This: Where the hell is my Wind Up Bahamut? My Veteran Reward Minions and Mounts and Barding without needing to sub for a year (over $100 paid) and instead obtainable via quest? My Mog Cap? My Coeurl Mount? My Wind Up Dalamud? Where are these in-game without "using real money"?

The funny thig is? Someone will argue against that despite using that exact argument to argue against the cash shop.

What they're actually complaining about is that the business is indirectly raising the price of the product that's being sold. We're already paying something like $150 a year, in addition to the initial purchase of the game, is a price increase for vanity content reasonable?

The problem with a cash shop in a P2P MMO is that you don't know if they're creating special/unique items specifically for the cash shop (selling additional content) or whether they're taking content they would have added to the normal game and instead sticking it in the cash shop (same content, higher price). If it were in some way clear to tell that cash shop content was definitely "add on" items, then it's not that big a deal. But their initial offering goes against this. The premium mount that's being introduced is Slepnir, and as has been pointed out earlier, this already existed in the game for the most part. The model already exists, its use as a mount for a humanoid shaped NPC already exists, so it can't be very much work to "add" this into the game. They're, for the most part, taking in game content and slapping a new additional price tag on it.

The other problem with Slepnir is that the item is sourced directly from the existing FFXIV universe we are experiencing and is not a tangential add on. If this was a Red VIII mount or a (god forbid) cloud's bike mount, that wouldn't be such a bid deal to me. Those items exist in a separate universe and strike me more as add on content, so if it's given an add on price, then that seems more reasonable. But with integrated ties to the FFXIV universe, Slepnir feels more like this should be part of the main game and should covered by the subscription fee.

Which leads me to believe they're going to be taking items that would have been included with the sub fee and now making them cost an extra fee. The result is an indirect price increase on the content that would have otherwise been included in our sub fee.

Now I'm not going to quit over this, but when I evaluate whether or not I want to renew from month to month, the cash shop will definitely go under "cons"

[whoopeeragon]

Oh come on, I'm sure you know darn well what the difference is there and are just trying to find something to argue about.

You are already paying a flat monthly sub to access and play the game. You would be paying that sub fee regardless, vet reward or no. The rewards are provided at certain intervals as a "thank you" for your continued support. You are not charged extra for them. You are getting them as a bonus freebie.

It is not the same thing as paying a sub, plus having to pay extra for items (vanity or otherwise) that your on-going sub already *has* gone toward producing.

I'm neutral on the implementation of the cash shop, but you need to read carefully and not go into such a rage. Some items Tupsi stated are NOT part of the vet rewards. They are extra stuff, by purchasing related merchandise such as soundtracks and artbooks, or in the latest example, the fanfest stream. Or obtained by upgrading your edition of the game.

Tupsi makes a point that SE has already been doing this for a long time, ever since FFXI, FFXIV 1.0 in terms of MMOs. We have been always been forking over cash for additional items that are NOT paid by our subscription. Why are people arguing and so dead-set against this particular form of payments when it's essentially been done for a very long time now?

I quote you Preypacer, on this:

It is not the same thing as paying a sub, plus having to pay extra for items (vanity or otherwise) that your on-going sub already *has* gone toward producing.

But that has already happened. We've paid extra for wind-up Dalamud, wind-up Bahamut, Asuran Armguards, Onion Helm, Hermes Sandals amongst others. So I really don't see why everyone is flying into such a rage over this issue, when people were actually excited about the exact same thing SE has done before, except re-skinned.

[Double]

While it sure brings in a certain amount of profit, it by no means can fund several games. Games nowadays cost a huge amount to create and a MMO of this size is costly to maintain. In my opinion, as long as the cash in this game stays for vanity purposes, it will be healthy for the game and the company as a whole.

Then questionable amount of items reaches the market that otherwise would have been a item drop in dungeon begins showing up on market..

[Lionhand]

The poor timing of the announcement is quite odd. Whether they planned this all along, it's like opening a wound not even fully healed from the recent personal housing debacle. SE must be desperate. This will come to pass and no amount of whining will stop it. Im sure every player knows when something sold is game breaking and/or gives an obvious advantage, so SE will be careful to even try selling one. It's a very risky move on SE's part to do this right now so they will tread lightly. Anything sold in that shop will be seen as a potential drop, crafted item or a reward for completing a quest now gone because they decided to make quick profits out of it.

This will cater to players who have extra money just to get ahead or look unique vanity-wise. Jealous players then have no choice but to cough up money too in the end so it sells itself. Maybe even seasonal event giveaways will truly be a gift spent in real money when they enable gifting between players. The whole business vicious cycle will then be complete. Only fools will fall for a cheap ploy like this so its every player for themselves. I don't care what others gain from it but all will be monitoring this scheme from launch. Only time will tell now if the whole final fantasy package is enough to keep patrons playing when the balance between every "vanity" cash shop items versus in game ones are constantly being scrutinized under a microscope.

Good Luck SE, i hope you know what you are doing or risking but I understand its a gamble you have to take. Just don't overdoit and it will be fine, otherwise, greediness will be this games downfall. This is SE's property anyway and every subscriber is expected to bend over whatever directions they decide to take. Or do they really have that much control over us silly customers? if not mentioned already, speak with your wallets and decide if investing money in a pixelated world have to be costly or not even worth your salt on top of the subscription you are already paying.

[Kirana]

I pay a subscription fee for full access to game content. Unless it is necessary to limit content to players due to technical limitations, that content should be available to all paying members. Double charging for content that is perfectly capable of being distributed to all players is unacceptable. I can understand charging for extra retainers if the game servers simply cannot handle every player having more than two. However, it is clear that something like a mount/minion/dye does not need to be limited in this fashion, thus SE should not be profiting extra from it just because they know they can take advantage of us.

[Motoko_Kusanagi]

I'm fine with a cash shop, as long as the items they put in it are available in game somehow as a regular drop or purchase with gold. It someone really wants that super rare mount drop but don't want to spend the time, I'm fine with them buying it at a cash shop.

Hopefully this will not open the doors to this game being pay-to-win

[ChriZirhC]

I'm fine with a cash shop, as long as the items they put in it are available in game somehow as a regular drop or purchase with gold. It someone really wants that super rare mount drop but don't want to spend the time, I'm fine with them buying it at a cash shop.

Hopefully this will not open the doors to this game being pay-to-win

this. as long as the content being sold in the cash shop can also be acquired in the game then I will be happy again. Leave the cash shop to the rich and lazy people.

[Tupsi]

Hopefully this will not open the doors to this game being pay-to-win

It never does unless the MMO is going F2P - Something the fearmongerers seem to continually forget.