You know what would increase subs?

[LyrisAdamanteia]

But you don't know that. Everyone says that like its fact. XI would be the perfect counterweight to WOW classic, as its SE's own unique offering that was well beloved. And WOW classic proved there is an audience for more old school experiences. I also don't understand taking the standpoint of guarding a companies money.

There is a good chance they get all their tens of millions back with enough time and support for a game with a proven track record than launching the new crap that has been bombing left and right from their studios. You benefit nothing by telling them hey don't do it, just pocket the change, and stand a lot to gain from bringing back a good game to modern standards. Maybe you don't have time anymore, but a lot of young people do, just like we had time back then. Heck most people that left this game did so because there isn't anything to do in it if you're caught up. The bad story was just the excuse they needed to finish breaking the cycle.

Does anyone here think FFXI remastered would be a worse investment than Babylon's fall?

"Square Enix did not publicly disclose the specific financial losses from Babylon's Fall. However, it's clear the game was a commercial failure and contributed to a significant drop in Square Enix's stock value. The game's poor performance led to the company restructuring its development approach and taking an "extraordinary loss" of 22.1 billion yen (approximately $140 million USD). This loss likely includes costs associated with the game's development and subsequent abandonment. "

I don't. The probabilities of FFXI having been the better bet than that are overwhelmingly clear. Even in its ancient decrepit state FFXI still pulls a profit.

I currently play FFXI and I can concur with Atma's statement. WoW Classic and FFXI are two different eras of mmos. FFXI is still firmly an EQ-like experience, WoW Classic is Classic yes but its an old school server of the modern mmo. Like a lot of people really don't realize what a sea change WoW was to mmos that came before it, the way folks talk about how (say) FFXIV is the baby casual game is how older mmo players were talking about WoW when it came out because it offered a convenience factor that you don't get in the EQ era from games like FFXI.

Like this is really operating under the assumption that FFXI and WoW are similar enough because they came out 2 years apart but in the development of mmos that 2 years was enough to really consider pre-WoW and post-WoW mmos entirely separate genres.

ETA: That isn't to say that WoW is solely responsible for it, as much as folks give that credit to WoW both EQ2 and CoH make a lot of the same changes that WoW did to the mmo formula of the EQ era but neither go as far or as extensively as WoW did nor were either as successful despite both releasing earlier in 2004 than WoW did.