Opinions: Returner- and/or Free-Login Campaign due to current situation.

[Rugir]

As of the current situation of general stay-home advice (and because I've read Blizzard/WoW added a +100% Exp Bonus for a month as well), I thought either the "returner's bounty" campaign or the "free login" campaign we've had before would be a good idea.

What do you think?

[StriderShinryu]

Would be a good idea for sure. Waiving all sub fees would be too big an ask but the returning subscriber campaign would be a nice gesture. Maybe turn back on the itinerant Moogle stuff or something too just as something extra for players to do while they are trapped at home.

[Odstarva]

Absolutely. If anything, I'm surprised no event of any sort has taken place yet.

[FirstnameLastname]

Corporate says no, go and pay.

[Vahlnir]

I think it would be a wise business move to do this right now. More players at home means there are more bored players wanting to play different games which means there's a potential for new customers which equals profit. It might also net them some decent PR: "Square Enix's free login campaign lets gamers play their game for free for a limited time!" Every company loves good PR. Well, except Blizzard. They seem to love crashing and burning.

[Iscah]

They already have the unlimited free trial to attract new people into the game without initially paying for it.

It might be nice of them to offer free logins, but it's not good business sense. They do it during quiet periods when they want to get people back into the game, not shortly after an update while a large chunk of the player base is at home with nothing to do. That's a prime time for people to choose to take up a subscription, so why would they declare a free login period at this point?

[MomomiMomi]

I take part in just about every free login. I predict we're going to have a free login around mid April. My inactive sub is ready.

[Hasrat]

why would they declare a free login period at this point?

Because, at least in the US, there's not a great deal of guaranteed paid time off due to quarantining orders, reduced hours due to nobody out patronizing anything, and otherwise a general loss of income for many, while bills continue to expect being paid. So, one way or another, SE's going to end up losing some subs over this. At least with some good PR, they've got better chances of bringing them back.

[Iscah]

Because, at least in the US, there's not a great deal of guaranteed paid time off due to quarantining orders, reduced hours due to nobody out patronizing anything, and otherwise a general loss of income for many, while bills continue to expect being paid. So, one way or another, SE's going to end up losing some subs over this. At least with some good PR, they've got better chances of bringing them back.

That's something to do in future though, if they're losing subscriptions and they need to keep people engaged or lure them back.

And they don't get any benefit out of making the game free now.

Let's say A is a regular player who can't afford to play now, B is a regular player who can still afford it, and C is currently not subscribed but is bored and and wants to play.

If they're still charging for subscriptions, they lose A but gain C. They're still getting two people's money regardless of who those people are (and if C didn't sign up, they'd still have one subscription from B).

If they make it free, they are getting zero money from anyone, have three people taking up computing power on their servers, and still have to keep the game running in uncertain financial times.

I can't see that possibly being beneficial from their viewpoint.

[Unaki]

Careful. Making any suggestion involving possibly getting something, even the smallest thing, free will attract the "wElL yA sHoUlDnT pLaY iF yA cAnT aFfOrD iT" crowd.