Quote Originally Posted by Alexis_Arteme View Post
Dev: "XIV is performing under expectations."
Prez: "Unfortunate. Think you can have it fixed by Christmas 2011 if we put a new team in there?"
Dev: "Yes."
Prez: "Alright. Keep it free, fix it, and we will have a "re-launch" in Fall 2011 to go along with XIII-2's release. We will re-assess the situation in Q1 2012 if there are still issues."
Dev: "Very good. We will orchestrate a way to "restart" the characters at that time to make this "free" period into a "pseudo-beta".

This is how it went down, in my speculation. The audience does not matter until the PS3 version is released. We're all beta testers, still. That's why we don't have to pay.
Right on the mark. I can't wait till FFXIV gets "released from beta." Because this is seriously a really good open beta that just keeps getting better.