Quote Originally Posted by Sotaris View Post
This is just a guestimate but around 178k USD per month based on Auction House usage but that doesn't take into account people using alts and have premium services like increased inventory space (i.e extra retainers)

https://www.ffxiah.com/database
Doesn't matter what log in numbers are, its more about revenue. ffxi currently has 16 servers that need to be stored, cleaned and maintained. The game is also still pumping out (minimal) content meaning they have to employ developers and in any large company there is a completely separate department that makes the decisions on who gets what money. They even talked about how they were getting a certain sum year after year so they could not plan anything to far ahead since they didn't know if they would have the money to do it. But they got a 3 year reprieve from that a year or so ago thanks to the 20th anniversary. Which clearly shows that XI is not still the money maker everyone wants to believe it still is.

Now if that department looks at xi and xiv and does factor in actual log ins, xiv is still going to be the clear winner in which one pulls in the revenue. So what indication do the people making the financial decisions have as to not only if xi gets any money but also how much? None.

I am sure XI would initially see at least a small bump in log ins, but the game is in a state that only the truly dedicated would stay. Let's face it, its old, clunky, grindy as all get out and you need to do 99% of that grind solo. That does not make for large numbers by any means in today's market. We all have rose colored glasses when it comes to ffxi, but if you resub and really dedicate yourself to playing, its a shell of what it used to be and it just not that great anymore. A common problem many new players still have is having no idea what to do since there are no quest indicators or any direction given. Combine that with the horrible rmt and merc problems the game has and it is even less new player friendly, so retaining that bump would be all but impossible.

Combining the subs would only mean the death of xi from a clear business and financial perspective. The game needs to generate its own revenue to prove that it is still worth being assigned a lump sum to work with each year. It's simple business.

WoW classic is a real bad example to throw around too, which I see a lot in this thread, since it is clearly a juggernaut in and of itself and the increase in revenue from it was clear. FFXI has never had WoW numbers and could plainly never pull WoW classic numbers, no matter how much everyone wants to fool themselves into believing that it could. Reality is just not the same as what you want reality to be.