Can someone clarify this " less than 1mill subs"

[Roris]

I don't think square enix is willing to make their games f2p again. BEcause ff14 failed when it went f2p.

Well, it went temporarily B2P because of how badly rushed and received 1.0 was, not the other way around. Sure there's the antecedent of FFXI never going F2P and DQX still being P2P, but there's also the antecedent of SE's all other F2P and freemium offerings and all other modern WoW clones/themepark MMOs like ARR that eventually went F2P, aside from WoW itself of course, so you never know.

[Meier]

Read the article in full, that quote was from a financial report that was made for March 31, 2014. The numbers have most certainly changed significantly since then thanks to more exposure and the release of Chinese servers.

How they've exactly changed? Who's to say but S-E themselves.

But the game is not doing well in China at all...

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...oing_in_china/

o.O

However, that report is for last year, and when the game was down lol...hence why it says March 2014, Polygon corrected it.

In short, the game is doing fine, pretty well actually! The entire fiscal year does not count for 4 months when the game was down (From March 31st to Launch), since the game was launched in late Aug/Early September 2013, thus making that report cover only 8 months out of the 12 months.

[Bluejay]

Just to point out that even if FF14 has only 1 million active subscribers that is $13,500,000 A MONTH in revenue for Square just from subscriptions (if you assume a mix of basic and expanded subscriptions). When you add additional fees from things like the Wedding service, revenue from paid expansions in the future, etc... that is plenty of money to keep this game supported and viable for a really long time.

[Dotsusama]

I don't think square enix is willing to make their games f2p again. BEcause ff14 failed when it went f2p.

1.0 didn't fail because it went F2P; it failed THEN went F2P as an apology to the players that lost money on a sinking ship, to tide them over until ARR was closer to release.

[Enkidoh]

As others have said, that is out dated information that was probably inaccurate even at the time it was released - until recently SE actually had a banner on the main page of the Lodestone that mentioned how many players were playing FFXIV, which clearly increased with each content patch, and the last time it was seen (around October last year) had reached over 2 and half million players.

Curiously though, that banner has since been removed, although the trailer for the 2.4 patch actually stated it as well at the very end (found here - skip to the very end of the video at 8'07" to see the 'Over 2.5 Million Adventurers Worldwide!' proudly displayed under the game's logo.).

So, which is the truth? Only SE knows, but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's probably still around the 2 and a half to 3 million players mark all up. But again, only SE knows for sure.

[Xatsh]

The info that site posted is meaningless honestly it is 8 months old which in terms of subcount could be the difference between +/- 400-500k subs in the mmo world.

XIV most likely does not have over 1mill subs in JP/NA/EU if it did grow that much we would of seen more servers being added which I do not think there was new ones opened. More then likely XIV sits around the 500-700k mark. If the game sold 2.5mill copies take 25% of that and that would probably be the high margin for our sub count.

I do not think the population outside china is really changing much. People are leaving and people are coming in at about even rates. Not good news but the game is stable for now. China from what I hear the game is failing hardcore (1.0 levels of fail) but that is all hearsay.

I think this expansion will determine if people stay or leave in mass. Alot are really pissed off about the pure linear design, quick negation, and over simplicity, but there is a opposite faction that would quit if they changed it up. So SE has to try to make both sides happy or they will lose one of the chunks of the playerbase.

[Ramen]

I believe 750k for XIV too. Also, long time ago, they already said they can survive with 200k sub. So, now with lots cash shop activities, they are doing pretty well still.

[Krr]

400k pessimistically, 750k optimistically.

For a subscription model MMO that's ironically enough to be second or third in the world. Market saturation, ahoy!

[Korilynn]

400k pessimistically, 750k optimistically.

For a subscription model MMO that's ironically enough to be second or third in the world. Market saturation, ahoy!

That was good to be in such a place long before market saturation.

[Krr]

That was good to be in such a place long before market saturation.

Hah, true. It just seems small because we're sitting next to, well, you know...WoW, and then every F2P giant.

Maplestory somehow has millions, despite being considered niche and inaccessible in the West. I'll never understand.

750k is a solid number in any case. Booms (and admittedly, their busts) come rapidly with expansions, too, which is why I'd reckon 2.5 and 3.0 are coming faster than expected.