I hadn't thought of it like that before. That's nearly as bad as the money SE will make off of forced excess Crysta. On the other hand, if SE loses 50,000 players/potential players/retired players that won't return because of this move, that would be a loss of $750,000 per month, $9m per year. Even if it was only a loss of 10,000 players, that would amount to $150k/month, $1.8m/year in losses. And that's not including future lost revenue from boycotted products and bad publicity.
I think we're being underestimated again. Seems to be the time of the year for it. Remember that time SE charged full price for that really terrible game they released this time last year? That didn't go over so well either.
What better way to commemorate the anniversary of screwing your fans over.. by screwing your fans over.
Oh and I'm still curious: I know Yoshida pulled a 180 and moved the focus of the game off of being leve-centric. Is he also backpedaling on that whole "regaining the players trust" thing?