Please consider dropping PS3 sooner rather than later.

[Alahra]

They would need to offer PS3 players a very big incentive to move to PS4 or PC; it's not OK from a business perspective to just suddenly turn to a chunk of your playerbase and say "sorry, you need to buy a $399 hardware upgrade now to keep playing the game."

They are likely to continue PS3 support in Japan longer than they do in other regions just for this reason. PS2 support for FFXI continued in Japan for longer there than it did in North America/Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if the next expansion has PS3 support in Japan but not for other regions, with it being phased out entirely by 5.0 (or at the latest, 6.0, but I think that's pushing it even considering FFXI's example--it didn't completely drop PS2 support until 2013).

[Gilraen]

...considering FFXI's example--it didn't completely drop PS2 support until 2013).

Which is still incorrect, Adoulin was released for the PS2 in Japan, you can see this in the supported consoles of the official Adoulin page for Japanese audiences. Click the Japanese flag at the top if it loads as another language. This isn't to say they aren't dropping consoles, but it certainly wasn't in 2013. To expand on why bother with consoles at all... it's a matter of cost. 1.0 needed, at the time, the absolute best PCs to run it at it's almost-best (needed a Crysis-rated gaming PC for the best performance). Average people usually save up to buy such a system a piece at a time or just buy a piece here and there to upgrade an existing system. Consoles, though, don't have the same overhead as a PC. They are designed to work with the average TV and don't tax an electric bill quite as bad. Honestly, the only people who think getting a gaming PC is just a matter of... getting a gaming PC are also people with disposable incomes of 'dubious source'.

[Alahra]

Which is still incorrect, Adoulin was released for the PS2 in Japan, you can see this is the supported consoles of the official Adoulin page for Japanese audiences.

I could have sworn that's when they dropped it, but I'm probably misattributing that to the end of official support in NA. I know they're in the process of phasing it out completely at least, but I haven't kept up with the news all that well so I probably just got my memory muddled.