Pay for your inventory.

[Zumi]

I was hoping to get a free 3rd retainer but guess not.

[TitaniaZero]

A third free one would be nice, I could so use it. But... this service has been around for awhile. Why is it now you all are unhappy with it? Should have been loud and stuff back when they started this service.

[Mhikail]

A third free one would be nice, I could so use it. But... this service has been around for awhile. Why is it now you all are unhappy with it? Should have been loud and stuff back when they started this service.

We have a new expansion with loads of materials and stuff but we can't get a single free retainer?
Wow. I thought we paid this game to get away from features like that.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Sorry but no, collecting in an RPG is a essential part of the experience and having to pay for inventory space just cause the devs can`t come up with a simple solution for inventory space...

And is as a simple armory with a "collections" menu where you can keep all diferent armor and weapon sets can be allocated without using inventory space. Simple, doable, damn, most RPG have something like this and works like a charm. Why XIV can`t?

This game gives you 100 inventory spaces, 350 retainer spaces, 25 armory chest spaces per equipment slot, an armoire which can hold certain unique items, and if you really need it there are 40 market board slots. Not to mention that there's also a total 150 slots in the Free Company Chests which will probably be expanded as new FC ranks come out. That's a total of 450 free slots and 300 specific gear slots per character. Not only is this more than most MMORPGs, but most stackable items stack all the way up to 99. There is a CRAZY amount of free storage in this game, and if you don't seem to have enough space then it's either time to clear out all of those useless monster drops or suck it up and pay SE so you can continue with your hoarding problem.

[Vejjiegirl]

More retainer more venture right?
More venture it means more chances to get rare pet isn't it?
I'm smellin $$ to win

Still noob with retainer services because never lvl retainer yet.

Not only that, but with all 8 retainers you can now sell up to 160 Items at once, where a Player without extra retainer service and just a regular sub can only sell 40 things at once.

[Cynfael]

The second I saw this in the patch notes, I just knew I'd find at least one thread already complaining about it.

If you want to keep extra crap, you pay a pittance extra. People are quick to break out the torches and pitchforks whenever SE reveals that they might actually be a business and looking to increase profits.

I have 4 total retainers right now. Could I make do with 2? Sure. I keep a ridiculous amount of crap I don't actually need and haven't touched in months. On the other hand, do I mind paying the cost of one large iced coffee per month for the additional 2 retainers? Not really. It's a tiny amount of money for me, but if enough players utilize the service, it's a significant increase in revenue for SE. If I no longer feel like storing all this junk, I'll stop the optional service. It's not a big deal.

Edit: As for ventures and item selling slots, I don't see that as a huge deal; I don't know anyone who has gotten rich exclusively off of retainer ventures (a few mil isn't much), and feeding tokens to all those retainers would be a lot of work unless you farm dungeons all day for items.

[Ashgarth]

A third free one would be nice, I could so use it. But... this service has been around for awhile. Why is it now you all are unhappy with it? Should have been loud and stuff back when they started this service.

It's not the service itself. It's the fact that inventory, because of the way this game works, is a problem Yoshida has acknowledged and their solution turns out to be... pay them more every month.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Look, you guys want more inventory you need to pay up! I have all the inventory space I need and your money might go to making more content for me. So start pulling out those checkbooks people!

[Cyrus-Wallace]

Snip

The problem is, we have so many classes and now we're getting 3 more jobs. So you have all the gear for them + glamour items you store/change. The amount of space that requires both crafting/gathering classes is really high. Just to mention a few things. I don't think a lot of people here use the FC chest to store their personal goods though.

[Welsper59]

Not quite P2W, but even I'll admit it's getting dangerously close. Only games I see with such an inventory disparity between those that pay extra and those that don't are F2P games. Not going to be getting more than the 2 extra retainers I already have, but deff feel like this is a low blow.

The retainers, given the functionality, is still very far from P2W. They could offer 100 retainers, and it'd still be rather far from P2W... given how you essentially lose for spending that much in the eyes of anyone not looking to burn some Benjamins for the fun of it, and the fact that it's entirely RNG to get something that is only useful for X amount of not-guaranteed gil.

Only time will tell though as to whether or not they use this as their crutch of an excuse to ignore Armoire and other inventory space solutions. As much as I don't mind paying for retainers (they serve multiple useful functions that don't affect anything game breaking, afterall), even I can see how stupid of a move it was to do this without addressing the other problems when CLEARLY server capacity is not an issue.