Do you think FFXIV wil ever go free to play?

[Zumi]

Do you think it will ever be an option for SE to go free to play with FF14 and open up a microtransaction store.

Say if they don't get the subscriber numbers they want when 2.0 is out, think it would ever happen? At first I thought SE wasn't into the whole microtranaction thing then I saw FFXIII-2 with buying all the outfits, weapons, and extra boss fights which end up costing almost as much as the game.

[Alhanelem]

SE doesn't appear to have much interest in the model, and with good reason. Unless the microtransaction store is 100% cosmetic, pay-to-win is usually a big turn-off and taints the integrity of the game. In MapleStory, you have people spending literally hundreds of dollars on "miracle cubes" that reset and re-roll the "potentials" AKA (augments ala FFXI), trying to get the most perfect ones. e.g. 3x "+30% damage to bosses on every peice of gear you can wear. Winning becomes not about having a good strategy, but about how much money the people in your party spent padding their gear. It just worsens the difference between the haves and have-nots in an MMO.

If they put in a microtransaction store I will quit.

[Viritess]

I'm thankfull their disintrested. I had kept an eye on TSW, but their pricing plan its a huge turn off for me, Box price + Sub + shop... please don't be the future...

Also Real money for items that disappear in 1, 7 or 30 days can burn in everlasting damnation impaled on a jagged iron stake bottom first! Where the heck did i put my pitchfork and torch!

[Nopax]

The F2P model is the future, even giant budget games such as Battlefield 3 are incorporating micro transactions and realizing the $60 retail tag hurts the game's popularity. One can make a case that shrinking the player base with that $60 entry fee (the initial purchase) hurts the game and makes it less profitable (solely on PC) than the F2P model would. This is why bigger budget games are going F2P and I think will continue to. Someday I'd imagine even consoles will catch up.

DOTA2, LoL, Blacklight: Retribution, World of Tanks all do f2p relatively well. Games that used to be pay to win such as Age of Empires Online are changing their ways to conform to the successful LoL model. There are also countless MMOs that do F2P, some very well and some not as well - although I can't really comment on which.

But FFXIV could very well go F2P, the odds of it staying P2P until it's shut down are slim to none. That said assuming 2.0 is decent the game will likely be one of the last P2P MMOs still running.

[NationOfZealots]

Isn't FFXI still based on subs? Your answers there... I'm more worried about the 2.0 client, letter says there will be a download but also a retail version, surely we won't be paying for this game again...

[Felis]

Isn't FFXI still based on subs? Your answers there... I'm more worried about the 2.0 client, letter says there will be a download but also a retail version, surely we won't be paying for this game again...

You only need to pay again if you want another account.

[Kiroh]

I've said it once and I'll say it again :

[nibelunc]

I hope not and FFXIII(-2) or that ingame shops are bull poo in my eyes.

[Felis]

It is f2p during the coming 2.0 beta.
But you need to buy the game first if you not have already an account.

[Akira_Tenshi]

It is a silly thing to ask really, we can not predict the future nor do we know how good 2.0 will be because they wont show us anything, who knows what is going to happen? This topic has been done to death to.