Free-to-play?

[Seig345]

1 reason XIV could go F2P before XI. Cash shop.
XI are hardcoded into Playonline a service that no longer is supported.

Yep. This is why you can't point to FFXI as proof that XIV will never go f2p. They simply cannot practically introduce a cash shop to XI or extricate it from PlayOnline in order to facilitate a transition to F2P. At least, not without a cost far higher than they'd likely see on the return, given XI has been retired to maintenance mode with no new content being developed.

[Leknaat]

Yep. This is why you can't point to FFXI as proof that XIV will never go f2p. They simply cannot practically introduce a cash shop to XI or extricate it from PlayOnline in order to facilitate a transition to F2P. At least, not without a cost far higher than they'd likely see on the return, given XI has been retired to maintenance mode with no new content being developed.

mog wardrobe 3 + 4 are basically cash shop / sorta like retainers. The fee is added to your monthy 11 sub.

[Seig345]

mog wardrobe 3 + 4 are basically cash shop / sorta like retainers. The fee is added to your monthy 11 sub.

Continuing this would still require further development of content, albeit cosmetic, for a game they supposedly cannot continue to develop new content for due to the foundation of the game being based on PlayStation 2 devkits (the number of which were dwindling even after they went out of their way to buy up as much stock as they could to continue developing as far as they had). Even overlooking that I can only imagine the mess it would be turning a page of the Square Enix Online Store into an expansive, F2P/B2P level cash shop for one game, seeing as this method basically would require registering a code to your FFXI service for every individual item purchased, and Bahamut help you on any expendable items.