Instead of cutting Ultimate from 5.5 why not cut bozja?

[linayar]

I see no reason to stay subbed anymore until the new expansion is released, which goes against anything considered on all "MMO" side of things.

Not at all. Nothing about an MMO says you have to stay subbed for the entirety of an expansion. In fact, it's a positive thing about FFXIV that most things can still be done later (and usually easier) if you don't want to stay subbed at the moment. Those few things that might not be easier if done later, you can judge for yourself if you want to do them now or not.

[linayar]

I find some issues with this argument. While the statement itself is true, if everyone would be doing this there would be less income for SE in general. If that's the philosophy you're going with, then why do they demolish houses in 1 month inactivity? Why is it that they create content for people to run like weeklies. Yes, I could only subscribe when I feel like it, but you *want* to be on the same level as everyone else. You want to gear up so you're ready to enter the new content. This in-between activity requires a sub from time to time, and there's a dynamic to it. Losing out on progress and having to spend more time on catching up can feel demoralizing.

Housing is limited, so they have to demolish to make room for actual subscribers.

Weeklies and timegated content are for people who will not rush through content and will play through the expansion over time, but you can make a level 70 character now and go through Shadowbringers without having to go through all of the grind of the entire Shadowbringers.

And if you want to be on the same level as everyone else, that depends on the content and depends on you. If you don't want to do Bozja, for example, then you don't need to worry about catching up with Bozja.

So to answer your initial question, while it's true that SE would be in trouble if everyone were to unsub, they know people are different and have different interests. That's why they create different types of content and Ultimate is just one content. And as long as enough of the players subscribe for whatever reason, they'll be fine.

I, for example, would continue to subscribe as I am not participating in Ultimate so it being delayed doesn't affect me and I'm leveling an alt character and am interested to do some of the other 5.5 contents (whether with my main or alt) in April rather than wait until Endwalker to do them all together.

[SturmChurro]

With all of the recent changes and looking back, I feel Shadowbringers is the worst expansion, absolutely so. (Except the story, that was the best part).

A lot of us have been saying this for a long time. Even before Covid.