Cash shop confirmed

[Roris]

So, why not openly discuss the addition of a cash shop back since the 1.0 days when the 2.0 information was just starting to get released? Why mislead people in interviews stating how cash shops are bad and how the P2P model is better because devs aren't forced to decide which items go into the game and which ones go into the cash shop?

I mean they themselves said they didn't expect the success ARR had on release, they themselves expected moderate to maybe even low sales. That's why all those server errors happened, because they weren't prepared for the traffic, even though they could have easily made a better estimate of how many people would be playing by both looking at the preorder numbers up to a month or two before the final beta, and by how many people had active subscriptions before they were temporarily suspended on September 2012.

You say all this takes time to measure and decide, but it's all just one big contradiction. If modern MMOs can't sustain themselves without cash shops, why not simply launch with one? If the game is successful enough with 2.5 million "adventurers" then why add a cash shop then? It's all about making money I know, business and all, but the transparency that characterized Yoshida should have come into play here. Yes yes, they don't owe anyone any explanation of what they do as a business, but Yoshida did get most of his goodwill and positive image by being transparent and open about 1.0's development, only to seemingly forget about it after 2.0's launch, and yes I know there are people above him the ultimately decide all this even though he was promoted to Corporate Executive, but still.

[Vhailor]

So, why not openly discuss the addition of a cash shop back since the 1.0 days when the 2.0 information was just starting to get released? Why mislead people in interviews stating how cash shops are bad and how the P2P model is better because devs aren't forced to decide which items go into the game and which ones go into the cash shop?

Well based on a lot of their recent decisions, i.e. the cash shop, the atrocious ports of older FF titles to the PC in an attempt to make a few bucks, and the sellout to Microsoft over Tomb Raider 2, I'd say that SE is aiming to emulate EA. At least, I can't think of any other viable explanation.