As far as the number of subscribed users...

[ShiloEET]

Does anyone think that this game will suffer on the way to it's first expansion pack? Well in regards to the original World of Warcraft, the game had only experienced higher and higher on the way to it's first expansion pack. Well these days i have heard that Warcraft's subscription numbers have become quite low. Now i'm not sure how either the last expansion pack "Mists of Pandaria", nor the new expansion pack "Warlords of Draenor" would be received. My point though is that with news of FFXIV: ARR's first expansion looming over head... Do you think the expansion pack's publicity will increase subscription numbers again?

Well, my point is that these two games WoW and FFXIV: ARR are not so different in subscription numbers. So with news of the new expansion for this game coming at the FF14 fan festival, does anyone else think FFXIV: ARR will keep these numbers like 2.5 million active players?

[Shougun]

Subscriptions will most likely rise at least for a little while, they did in most of WoW's too, WoW is just getting out of its phenomenon phase - it is still at an incredible subscription number that any company would love to have though.. Even if it did not significantly increase the sub number just buying the expansion (if enough buy it) will be a lot of money.

Yoshida said the expansion is 3.0, about the same size as 2.0, and they said multiple jobs and areas will be released. I imagine they're trying to recreate the 2.0 feeling which booned them a great number of subscriptions. So "hopefully" having actual news of 3.0 will be like that, many people excited and a lot of new stuff going on. Hard to say though.. I mean we know very little.

(WoW and FFXIV are different in subscription numbers)

[RiceisNice]

The way it trended in WoW was that the subscription numbers always drop down a bit near the end of an expansion due to content being exhausted and an update drought of 6+ months. But their overall subs kept increasing and stayed fairly high up for both their 1st and 2nd expansion. In the case of MoP though, I recall there being a signifcant subscription drop near the end (though this is still higher numbers than what they'd have during classic I believe), due to (and I can attest to this) the overall lack of late game content, especially for the release of their last raid instance. It's just not enough to fill in that incredibly long period toward the next expansion. The real challenge is getting those sub numbers up and retaining them for the expansion release.

[Cigaran]

Sensational click bait is sensational. We don't have accurate numbers and never will so saying they'll be up or down is pure speculation with inaccurate data.

Every MMO on the market since the dawn of the MMO genre has highs and lows subscription wise. You typically see a downward swing around the late summer and early fall as that is when North American players return to school. Beyond that, almost every MMO has seen a drop in numbers at the six and twelve month periods since that is usually the longest block of time you can subscribe for and a number of players will sign up for those durations at release. When an expansion or large update is released, you typically see an upswing in the number of people playing since many will come back to check out the new content.

[ShiloEET]

Sensational click bait is sensational. We don't have accurate numbers and never will so saying they'll be up or down is pure speculation with inaccurate data.

Every MMO on the market since the dawn of the MMO genre has highs and lows subscription wise. You typically see a downward swing around the late summer and early fall as that is when North American players return to school. Beyond that, almost every MMO has seen a drop in numbers at the six and twelve month periods since that is usually the longest block of time you can subscribe for and a number of players will sign up for those durations at release. When an expansion or large update is released, you typically see an upswing in the number of people playing since many will come back to check out the new content.

Right. Given that ARR is a remake/re-release of an older online title too. The expansion pack might be what really drags other players back. This is just how i see it though.