Why won't SE merge the servers due to few people playing the game?

[Exiledraven]

Merging servers would make the game seem like it's on the decline. Whether or not it's true, SE doesn't need to bring that image up for outsiders who may be considering the game. Besides, like other people said I'm sure SE is anticipating more players once they release a PS3 version. If the game is impressive by then, the positive reviews will probably bring in new PC players as well. If they merged servers now, they would risk damaging their image even further only to have to open more later on (If the PS3 launch goes well, of course).

[Xatsh]

Actully FFXI has been losing players rapidly since FFXIV release announcement. Fenrir went from 1800 people on a night down to an average of 800. It was holding at around 400,000 subs the Christmas prior to the announcement of FFXIV followed by a server merge, now a 2nd server merge. So FFXI is actually dying as fast if not faster then XIV atm.

I seen alot of people quit Aion at the server merges. Several legion I knew went back to WoW at that point, and 5-6 people who where in my linkshells on XI came back from WoW. Might of not been the majority but alot did quit just because of that.

[Alise]

Many of my PS3 friends is waiting to get support from me who come alone to play PC first, we want to play together

no separate please.

[Gulkeeva]

Merging servers .... would make some parts of the game unplayable for "some" people (people with low end pc's).

Don't forget there are other counties playing the game, not just "during NA morning hours"., just because you barely see anyone when you get off school/work in the noon time doesn't mean the servers not loaded with people at another play time say like 3-7am.

Like palmecia server, you could basically count the people from repair NPC to market wards on both hands during NA hours. But during JP hours theirs a good amount of people (almost as many as release day of ffxiv feels like). Places like uldah, nanawa mines battle warden , NM camps and camp broken water have enough that some people in my group complain about low fps or even d/c (yes seen up to 4 LS with 6-8+ people) sitting around waiting for/searching for a NM.

NA hours, nothing its basically a ghost town with a few afk's here n there and bots littered about as usual.

The NA population to JP is basically 15:1 on my server, I'd presume the same on most any server.

[Dyvid]

Servers aren't dead and don't need to be merged. Let's focus on fixing the game first then we can talk about server pop in a year or two.

[darkstarpoet1]

What about the $ issue, though? Less servers = less money spent on a game that's not currently generating revenue (excluding sales of new games).

my only question if do they own the servers or rent the servers? if they rent the servers they may have had to guaranteed time frame on the length of the rent so taking them down may not save any money. i'd imagine a large company expecting a big first year in sales and traffic would have signed at least a year lease on the servers. i don't know just something to think on maybe a reason for not doing it.

[MariyaShidou]

What about the $ issue, though? Less servers = less money spent on a game that's not currently generating revenue (excluding sales of new games).

This is actually not true, where will the current server capacity go to? They won't be able to recoup much reselling the hardware, nor would they be able to use it for another purpose (really, as a large corporation are you saying SE is lacking in term of hardware for their other operation? Otherwise, what could these go to?). They in fact do need it in case of PS3 release, if the population rise up again. Leaving your asset collecting dust to save operation expense, does not really cut cost.

[Malakhim]

1) Once XIV goes PS3, there will be a large gap between PS3 and PC players - by merging you can have the PS3 users start fresh with their own peers while we continue on with our own peers

Why has this ever mattered for anything in the history of things?

[Enrei]

I'm more of a solo/small group player, but I'm ok with having more people for random pick-up-groups, or chats.
Did anyone ever play Dark Age of Camelot? That game allowed you to visit other servers connected to yours, similar to the WoW battlegroups. Hub-towns were always connected, and if you formed a party with one of the out-of-server people, they'd be transfered to your server once you left the town, so that you could adventure together. I'd welcome something like that over a flat out server merge. It doesn't sound as bad, and hell, WoW does it, so it should go in the "acceptable MMO behavior" bin.
I hate the idea of being stuck on one server, honestly, I miss the World hopping days of Runescape...

[ryuuseikan]

So, suppose we merge servers, I still don't see how it is easier to get a group. I was playing on one of the most populated server and and people almost never use /say channel to talk, and it is very hard to get a party started. Unless cramping more people into a server will fundamentally solve that problem, I don't really see the benefit.

If there's gonna be restructuring servers, I hope there gonna be regional servers where people can communicate more freely, you know, like almost any other MMO that has common sense.