The future of MMO business

[Bladeglory]

The elder scroll online have the collector edition that will let you play as an imperial in any alliance with unique bonuses, crafting styles, gear and more.

But FFXIV already did this. Buying the Collector's Edition gets you a Fat Chocobo, Coeurl, Behemoth Barding, Wind-up Moogle, Baby Behemoth, and a Warrior of Light helm, which gives you +10% exp until level 10 on every class.

You could complain that FFXIV "locked all this behind a pay wall" too. Being an Imperial and having the ability to crafting in the Imperial style are both as important as the mounts and minions. The only gameplay benefit in the Imperial Edition is getting a horse early and cheap.

I've been burned by a game promising not to do microtransactions. But in the end, all you can do is quit or not pay for them. We can only vote with our wallets in this case.

I hate to break it to you but purchasing more retainers was on the tables long before the game relaunched.

Oh, and I can confirm this. They've had it planned since the inception of 1.0, but put it on the back-burner when they made FFXIV free. In fact... I think when they did so, they gave us a second retainer free. Hmm.