If it went pay-to-play those playing now would stay for the most part, those on the bar and who are waiting for it to become FF-WoW or FFXI-2 will quit.

PS3 if the game has content and the bugs are worked out... lets see ps2 subs in XI was around 320k subs, so I would say at least 250k subs from the ps3. PS3 is the major gaming consol in Japan for both Online and offline games. So you will see a massive boost to the population with the PS3 as long as they do not blow the release.

My linkshell alone we have around 37 people waiting to come over at the ps3 release if they have endgame added. And my linkshell is just 1 group.

Oh and about your dying game thoery if you haven't looked FFXI lost about 65% of its playerbase in a year. So the whole theory about them putting more effort into XI because it is doing better is pure stupid.

It amazes me how much the trolls are trying their hardest to get as many people to give up before 1.18 as possible in the last 3 days.