Think we are about to see another wave.

[Shinxwildflower]

Being hyper-focused on short-term profits is not a viable business strategy.

Here's the thing, the psychology behind those purchases are to show them off, specifically to show them off to the have-nots. The problem is the non-whale audience is bleeding out hard. It's not all that fun showing off to another whale so the whales eventually get bored and quit. While things look rosy now the cash shop revenue over the next few quarters is going to tank hard as the whales abandon ship.

To be fair, FF14 isn't all that different - all those fancy looking clothing, weird mounts you can't get anyway else in game (like the 8 person mount), with the random emotes in the store. Like really, why is a snap emote like $2? Why nit just give it for folks in game from doing a quest?

[GeminiReed]

To be fair, FF14 isn't all that different - all those fancy looking clothing, weird mounts you can't get anyway else in game (like the 8 person mount), with the random emotes in the store. Like really, why is a snap emote like $2? Why nit just give it for folks in game from doing a quest?

Or the seasonal event FOMO items. Yes I find XIV's cash shop particularly irksome especially since this is a sub-required game. I won't claim to be innocent either as I've bought stuff (Cloud cycle and Whale bus) and the only reason I haven't thrown down for more is because Square doesn't offer account-wide items.

But there was context to my reply. An MMO consists of multiple populations which are heavily inter-dependent. Neglect or abuse a niche to the point that people start leaving can have an affect other niches especially if the related activities depend on high population. Claiming that WoW has nothing to worry about because they're currently reporting great numbers is naive. The shrinking PCU/MAU is far more telling how things will shake out over the next several months.

While I'm happy people have discovered FF:XIV I expected it to be temporary. However the various stories about how shocked people were that they did not get abused over silly mistakes has me revising that opinion. Blizzard made a fundamental error by adopting Wildstar's failed "Gold or Bust" style of dungeon running. IMO they have chased off their casual component and it's going to take a major overhaul in thinking to bring them back.

And now... now there's a lawsuit that they've already screwed up. The ActiBlizz of the future is going to look significantly different than today's after the suit is resolved.