So, even Wildstar is going f2p...

[Akuryu]

FFXIV doing way batter than wildstar, in fact Yoshi was aiming for a 200-500k playerbase, and based on the last information we got, the game has more than 4m subs and 2m active accounts so...

There is no way this game has millions of subs. Recent scans of the lodestone show around 700k active characters (characters, not accounts). Financial statements made earlier this year put the number around 500k. But hey, if 500k is enough to keep the game going (and it seems to be), then more power to them. I'd prefer this game remain sub based.

That said, the f2p model hate is silly. Everyone acts like it ruins great games, but in reality most games go f2p because they are doing so poorly. I mean how great were they that so few were playing them? Most that go f2p see increased profits. f2p has outright saved many games in this genre that simply wouldn't exist today had they not switched.

If a day comes where they'd have to shut down the servers otherwise, F2P is definitely the better option.

Yes! This exactly. If you love a game that is dying, and you knew f2p could save it, you'd be a fool to take that option off the table. There are tons of players in Rift, SWTOR, LotRO and other games, complaining about the f2p model. None of them seem to realize that without f2p those games would be dead, and they'd have nothing to play at all. SWTOR was on pace to be the biggest MMO flop of all time... went f2p and became a very profitable game. It just got a multi-million dollar expansion it certainly wouldn't have received otherwise. Yet you still hear them whine "f2p ruins everything!!!"