So whats with the awful rumors?

[SicariusSeven]

It won't unless SE ultimately decides not to back it anymore. Right now it has a decent size playerbase and is liked by a lot of people. It stands up there as a small rival to WoW (I say small because we all know WoW is only good because if it's absurd numbers) and fares better against the other MMOs. Give it a few years and maybe it will or maybe it will just be the core game that goes F2P but don't go believing silly rumors.

[KisaiTenshi]

There was an interview where Yoshi-P reiterated that this game would not go f2p unless there was an overwhelming demand from the playerbase and/or if the game was on its last legs. Of course lots of reporting outlets put a false spin on the topic for clicks and bring out the people who don't want to pay

It's not likely as long as it's still making enough money to cover it's operations and development from existing subscriptions and occasional cash shop items. There have been games that started in F2P mode, had huge player bases, but made so little money beyond the whales that they were shut down (Sony Online entertainment), meanwhile much older F2P games have been running for ages. Likewise there are F2P games in Korea and Japan that have plenty of English users on them because their US divisions were too slow to localize them (eg Sega.) For a F2P game to survive, it has to have as few localization forks as possible, otherwise the "prime game" is the one players will play and ignore mutilated localized versions. That is where FFXIV shines, the Japanese and English version are the exact same game.

So I don't see it ever going F2P unless another FF-Online game in the same genre is released.

[LalaRu]

f2p is the death of a MMO.

[SilverObi]

-snip-

Completely agree! Also I like your name lol

[Aniond]

Fake news comes to mind. FFXIV is somewhat over 8 million subscribers right now. They would be out of their mind to make it FTP.

[AlexanderThorolund]

Theres been some youtube speculation about it, I actually honestly haven't watched the video since the idea bothers me so much.

Of course youtube is stupid 90% of the time so..

So you haven’t watched the video, you believe the videos in question are stupid and point out in the OP that the rumours aren’t even true, yet you think it’s a valid reason to create a thread about it?

Flame/click bait thread.

[Rita1989]

Fake news comes to mind. FFXIV is somewhat over 8 million subscribers right now. They would be out of their mind to make it FTP.

SE doesn't release active sub numbers and if you think there is 8 million active players your delusional

[SicariusSeven]

SE doesn't release active sub numbers and if you think there is 8 million active players your delusional

Well Blizzard no longer releases sub numbers either. Both MMOs have an active player base. 8 million was probably the recent peak. Again no current reason for FF XIV to go F2P.

[Voltyblast]

Well Blizzard no longer releases sub numbers either. Both MMOs have an active player base. 8 million was probably the recent peak. Again no current reason for FF XIV to go F2P.

The highest peak was, i believe, about 1.200.000 subbers back at ARR and I mean SUBSCRIBERS, not accounts: those 8-10 million people are just accounts, most likely trials that probably didn't bother continuing the game.

According to few unofficial census (basicallly taking in consideration achievements, so it's 1000% inaccurate), the highest peak we had recently was about 600k in September which isn't bad BUT still not as high as ARR ever had and we'll see how it goes with 4.1, since it has so little content the same scenario of 3.1 might repeat anyway. Time will tell.

Meanwhile I heard wow - always by unofficial data, so i might be wrong - is about 3m or less than that: a lot less than 12m from WoD for sure but still a lot more than 600k.
Shame, since Legion is a good step forward from WoD.

[Kohdo]

I believe FFXI still uses a sub model despite low subs. FFXIV will likely be a subscription MMO until the day it dies, and thank God for that. There's more than enough F2P cancer on the market.