Quote Originally Posted by Gemina View Post
It's all marketing, right? It brings me back business and economics, and my class divided into groups and could choose between one of three marketing techniques: produce high quality/low quantity and sell high; produce low quality/high quantity and sell low; or somewhere in between. It wasn't a simulation either, we were just given the product to be sold, shown the current supply vs demand on the market, choose how to produce/sell it, and all the groups got rewarded actual money depending on how they did (a little more to it that that, but for sake of sticking to the point).

Interestingly enough, the in-between groups did the poorest. I remember well because me being the even-steven I am, convinced my group to go this route. What I also remember well, is the group that went with high quality/low quantity killed it. Like overwhelmingly so.

Thing is, I'm not actually bringing that up to emphasize on quality > quantity. After all, the group that chose to go quantity > quality still did well; just not as good as the reverse. I actually brought up the class to solidify your point on not having a niche, which is why my group did the poorest; it was because we tried to market to a general consumer, while the other two groups targeted a specific customer. And that brings me to SE's current decision making, which I would imagine cannot be easy.

The FFXIV playerbase as a whole is larger and more diverse than it has ever been, and I am quite sure Yoshi is well aware that the greater a population grows, the less sustainable it becomes and he knows it's happening right now. Hence, his comment. In order to keep FFXIV sustainable so that the playerbase doesn't just devour it like a vicious carnivore and leaving an empty husk of what once was, I think it is going to have to accept some losses. It will be of key importance to maintain their loyal subscribers and not take the for granted. They are the ones capable of developing an equilibrium with the dev team so quality product comes out in a reasonable amount of time that is can sustain the game for years.
Dont know if you are what you say cause internet but i do agree that they need to pick a direction they cant keep trying to satisfy everyone cause it leaves everyone unsatisfied . the problem is nobody wants to hear that their "side" wasnt picked sooooo yeeeee i wouldnt want to be in yoshi-p s shoes.