Ffxiv monthly sub isn't stretching & response to PCGAMER article

[Jeeqbit]

SquareEnix as a whole would actually go bankrupt if people only subscribed 2-3 months a year.

If you think that, then you don't understand how it works.

The "30 million adventurers" marketing is, of course, the total amount of characters ever made. Most of them are not subscribed right now. It is a pool, from which only 1-2 million are estimated to be subscribed at a given moment.

So let's say those "30 million adventurers" took it in turns to subscribe to the game for 1 month per year. On average, 2.5 million people would be subscribed at a given time.

It seems we are at somewhere over 1 million active characters, which is a lot lower, but the same logic applies. More than that are probably subscribed going by their finances but let their subscription linger (subscribed without actually playing, like a lot of people do with netflix).

How do we know this logic applies to any degree whatsoever? The returner (flower) icon and the sheer statistical evidence that Lucky Bancho regularly finds of returning players being a big factor. It's also a factor for a lot of long-running MMORPGs like WoW and Runescape and even old popular games in general.

Now should the content keep people there longer than a month? I wouldn't mind if it did, I'm just saying that they are settling for this strategy at the moment instead of endlessly chasing more profit.

[ovIm]

snip

Someone here on the forum once posted the earnings report of Square Enix from before DT, which showed that FFXIV as a whole counts for (iirc) 68.5% of the revenue of the company. You are underestimating how much FFXIV carries Square Enix, losing a huge amount of players would hurt them quite a lot.

[Moqi]

I'm just saying that they are settling for this strategy at the moment instead of endlessly chasing more profit.

This is the strategy that brings the most profit. You can't possibly believe they'd choose anything other than making the most money.

[Jeeqbit]

Someone here on the forum once posted the fiscal report of Square Enix from before DT, which showed that FFXIV as a whole counts for 68.5% of the revenue of the company. You are underestimating how much FFXIV carries Square Enix, losing a huge amount of players would hurt them quite a lot.

What I'm trying to say is that people don't need to be subscribed year round for them to make the profits they are currently making, due to the concept of returners.

If they lost those players permanently, sure, it would hurt them, I agree completely. But a lot of evidence shows that people eventually return for at least 1 month, and so long as they do, SE profits.

I agree that if they make such a bad impression that people don't return, that it would be bad, and maybe they are doing that, but it could take a while to be reflected because - consider that even if lots of current players quit, lots of others will return who last played in SB, SHB, EW, etc. who haven't been through Dawntrail and gained these negative feelings yet and it will take time for all potential returners to, well, not want to return again.

Now of course, the people who play for more than 1 month - the kinds that run events and communities and websites and FCs. These people are important, of course, and could affect the impression returners get as well, if long time players are not around to help them settle back in. But it'd still likely take a while before returners stop returning, if they do.

I'm not disputing that it's what brings in most of their revenue.

[Jeeqbit]

This is the strategy that brings the most profit. You can't possibly believe they'd choose anything other than making the most money.

You're kinda right, because Yoshi-P knows what happens if you endlessly chase profit: people start to hate the company, and that reputation can be hard to recover from, resulting in potentially less profit.

[Arzalis]

If you think that, then you don't understand how it works.

The "30 million adventurers" marketing is, of course, the total amount of characters ever made. Most of them are not subscribed right now. It is a pool, from which only 1-2 million are estimated to be subscribed at a given moment.

So let's say those "30 million adventurers" took it in turns to subscribe to the game for 1 month per year. On average, 2.5 million people would be subscribed at a given time.

It seems we are at somewhere over 1 million active characters, which is a lot lower, but the same logic applies. More than that are probably subscribed going by their finances but let their subscription linger (subscribed without actually playing, like a lot of people do with netflix).

How do we know this logic applies to any degree whatsoever? The returner (flower) icon and the sheer statistical evidence that Lucky Bancho regularly finds of returning players being a big factor. It's also a factor for a lot of long-running MMORPGs like WoW and Runescape and even old popular games in general.

Now should the content keep people there longer than a month? I wouldn't mind if it did, I'm just saying that they are settling for this strategy at the moment instead of endlessly chasing more profit.

This is all very weird logic.

But to the main point: Yes, right now some people clearly stay subbed. My actual argument was that if enough people don't stay subbed between patches, the game and the company would be in huge financial trouble. So the argument telling people to "just unsub" isn't actually something YoshiP wants.

[Moqi]

That's not at all what I'm saying but you keep believing that, it's alright.

[Jeeqbit]

This is all very weird logic.

Weird or not, it's how long-time MMORPGs work. They benefit from returning players heavily.

[Thistles_Leaf]

WoW just had a huge guild bank item loss issue where a very, very, large amount of guild's lost everything in their banks. Blizzard claims it is a small number. It is not. Our guild bank got wiped. All of it gone. Out guild started in 2006. No compensation. Nothing. I seriously doubt that those peolpe whom they ticked off will be paying them anything to play that dumpster fire of a game.

They lost more people in just the last few days when they put in their cash shop a mount that costs more than 2x the last expansion price that just came out a month or so ago. That is on top of the 80 euros they want for 4 additional new mounts. And they are pushing the one year prepaid subscription hard as well. They are anticipating a lot of players leaving now. World first is over. M+ is a mess with scaling issues beyond belief, the game is buggy as heck, still.

If people want to play that game they can but dont complain that you are only treated as a cash cow.

I gave blizzard enough money over the years, started in 2010, and so far ive not gotten much but being slapped and abused for playing it. So i stopped playing it last week and tried this instead. I like it. Blizzard can frankly go to hell. Seriously. I am not ever touching that game again. P-servers, yes. Not retail. I am not payign them to get abused like that with no compensation. There are people that lost 20 years worth of stuff and there are people who lost WoW tokens bought with real life cash. No refunds. Your loss. Tough crap is the message. Dont liek it? You know what to do....play another game. So i dod. THis game.

All games have issues. It is time i give somebody else some money and see what they do with it.

And the wow value stacking that article talked about? I could not even start wow's MoP remix event since i had a bug at the start that prevented me from getting off of the boat. I was on the ground doing the first few quests there and got sucked up to the boat in the air when i stepped onto the ground below it. Then i could not get off of the boat again and go bacl down.

Blizzards retail wow is a freaking buggy mess from start to finish. 2 months into the expansion and they still have no fixed fundamental game breaking bugs in some of the dungeons. Game breaking bugs that brick your keys. 2 months in and still not fixed. But they drop nearly 200 dollars in mounts thsi week. They have dopamine addicts even defendign them.

[Daralii]

You're kinda right, because Yoshi-P knows what happens if you endlessly chase profit: people start to hate the company, and that reputation can be hard to recover from, resulting in potentially less profit.

People already hated SE for countless boneheaded decisions over the years. CS3/CBU3 were considered the exception until EW(mainly the patch content), XVI, and DT destroyed the good will they'd built up over a decade.