MMO market is really flooded these days. There are many free to play games for people to pick from as well. Free to play games aren't nessassiry bad but the reason they make more of a profit then most pay games is you get that one guy usually 1 out 5 whos willing to dump tons of cash into the cash shop which would pay for like 10 peoples subscriptions.

Also SE made the classic Everquest 2/ Lineage 2 mistake. Releasing a direct sequel to an already popular MMO. Thus splitting the playerbase and seeing a decline in both games. Blizzard was smart in a way because they never did this. They just keep updating WoW.

SE is going to release Dragon Quest X which is a MMO for the Wii in August 2nd and for Wii U when it comes out. This will split their JP player base for FFXIV and FFXI even more so. Dragon Quest games are huge in Japan and most JP players actually prefer playing MMOs on consoles rather then PCs as seen by how many preferred to play FFXI on PS2. SE has no plans for a NA / EU release of Dragon Quest X. This is sure to make a lot of those JP only people happy. I wouldn't be surprised if this game does better then FFXIV there.

So yea they are really killing themselves with over-saturation of the market.