We lost 70% of our player base half a year in

[Renathras]

The only issue would be the large investment they've made into servers and hardware due to the rush of players on launch. If we lost all those players, that's wasted investment and a harsh loss. And really, Endwalker hasn't actually offered anything new or exciting to retain players, most things are pretty much the same as ShB.

I don't think it's right to argue it's a "wasted investment". The only place that MIGHT be an issue - and probably not - is the Oceania datacenter. Legitimately, there needed to be one there due to latency issues for those players, but they PROBABLY only need two servers there, not 5.

North America is still pretty loaded looking at the Lucky Bancho numbers the NA servers are more populated than JP, and EU is even moreso. EU definitely needed - and still needs - more servers and possibly another datacenter. NA probably needs a fourth datacenter as well. As long as they move AT LEAST ONE (and preferably 2) existing servers to any new DC so they have options for market and que access, and with DC travel enabled in each region, that should shore up any problems.

Another thing is that there's ALWAYS a player spike with expansions, and we were already at the limit when EW came out. But that's hardly new. Anyone that was around for ShB launch, or SB early access/launch, or HW launch, or ARR launch knows that the servers have ALWAYS been the limiting factor. So even if EW was a once in the game's life high point (which I highly doubt - BEFORE the WoW influx, FFXIV was already experiencing steady growth, and the trendline is still continuing with steady growth), the extra servers were honestly already needed. Even if we never get another player more than we have right this moment during this X.1 lull (which happens literally every expansion since people have done all the X.0 and X.1 stuff but the "something to do when you're bored" Exploration/Relic stuff hasn't come about yet since that comes in X.2), then the extra server space was already needed and is money well spent.

FFXIV has a "slow and steady wins the race" approach, and it has given them a lot of success, so that's not a bad thing. It doesn't need "to go big", it just needs to hold steady. But that said - it DID go big in EW. This forum aside, the rest of the internet and people playing the game on the whole largely loved 6.0 and the entire story and resolution of the saga, and were excited to see where we go next and what we do from here. The generally consensus at the time was that most people loved the experience, and the biggest complaint was a BIT of downtime two places in the story, and that some people didn't like Zenos at the end but otherwise loved the narrative.

I do think there's a hunger for the game to take on more, but it's hardly in a bad place continuing as it has been.

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ARR released on August 27, 2013. It is now June 27, 2022, exactly 106 months later.
ARR released on Steam on February 14, 2014, less than 6 months after ARR's release.

Experiment funtime - people have already shown you that the Steam numbers have always been a small portion of the player base. You can see this looking at the Steam analytics for the entire game's history. WHY IS THAT?

Further, that it has had a Steam version wasn't the point. When I started playing, I didn't know there was a Steam version (I'm not sure there was when I started), but over time, many people didn't choose the Steam option. We can argue over why this is and how long this has been, but it's been a long running belief of the community until fairly recently that Steam is iffy for FFXIV, so most people recommended new comers, friends, and people asking on social media get the official launcher.

FACTUALLY, FFXIV wasn't always on Steam. I love how you quote something I said, go "BUT TECHNICALLY..!!", and think that's a win.

Moreover, in terms of PERCEPTION, Steam was not seen as a valid or good platform for the game for a long time.

But ignoring ALL OF THAT:

You have yet to present an argument backed by any data at all, or even an ARGUMENT, as to why the Steam numbers are valid for the game as a whole, and the onus is on you to do so since you wish to employ the numbers as if they are. You've merely insisted they must be, questioned anyone who has questioned you to try to shift the onus onto them to disprove your data set choice instead of you proving/validating its use, and refused to entertain the notion they may not be, despite numerous arguments and analytical analysis of the numbers that question that assumption.

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This person always makes shit up, pretends it's true, and acts like they're smarter than you for "knowing" the shit they just made up. With the length of posts they write maybe they should find a different hobby in fanfic writing.

Do you never get tired of ad hominem fallacies?

You always make shit up, pretend it's true, then act like you're smarter than people for "knowing" shit you just made up. Moreover, you do so in the most insulting ways possible, and your posts are littered with you attacking people and calling them names, often completely ignoring their arguments.

You should find a different hobby as a professional insulter - it's clearly more up your alley than rational discourse or analysis.

And for the record - I'm often writing long posts because MULTIPLE PEOPLE reply to things I say, and the forum limits me to 20 posts per day, so I have to try and combine several replies otherwise conversation would be impossible.

Just because something "existed" on Steam doesn't mean it was common to use it. Keep in mind when you go back 8-10 years, Steam wasn't viewed as an MMO source. If you wanted to play an MMO (WoW, Guild Wars, SWTOR, ESO, FFXIV, etc.), you bought it through the company and played it through the company's launcher. That was the norm. Steam as an MMORPG source just wasn't really a thing back then even if it technically existed as a way to play the game.

Add to it not only the length of time a person is likely to have played based on launcher, but add the type of gamer into the mix. Long-time RPG fans are more likely to use the company launcher. Meanwhile, WoW has become largely an eSports game in recent years, and guess where more eSports can be found...yep, Steam. A competitive eSports player is more likely to have other games on Steam and more naturally thus use Steam for FFXIV.

As someone else pointed out, the onus is on *you* to prove Steam would actually somehow be a representative sample of the playerbase. Because not only have you not proven that, but you've been presented with multiple pieces of evidence from multiple people showing why it is *not*.

This.

ALL of this.