The biggest mistake SE made with XIV is try to expand out of its niche market, the one it built with XI, instead of expanding on what worked and went with the niche again. Look at games like Demon's Soul and now its sequel Dark Souls, they have a niche following and didn't go crazy and go in a completely different direction with Dark Souls because they are targetting their fans. FFXI had its followers and if FFXIV took the best of XI and put 'em on steroid it would have been a major success at the very least for XI fans...now we're left with a game hardly anyone likes and one which has a bleak future at best.

I personally think that if things don't work out with XIV the only way SE can get back in the MMO market is by making a direct sequel to XI and calling it FFXI-2 and it takes place in Vana'Diel but maybe in the future or whatever. Because after this failure if SE announces years down the road that FFXX is an MMO everyone is going to ignore them.