Voting with my wallet

[Abriael]

Thx for the fun SE, i hope i can come back some day.

You can, you just need to get over yourself.

This. Upvote for you.

You ignored #1 and the topic of the thread - You ignored what is apparently a reversal in what they told us already. This is why people don't trust the cash shop rhetoric... and it also points out my biggest concern. Cash shops are the hallmark of revenue issues. If they are having revenue issues, there are other problems... and zero amount of promises will matter. They will be forced to do what they have to for revenue, regardless of what Yoshi goes out and tells players.

Actually no. I'm afraid this post indicates a severe lack of knowledge in how the gaming market works and a bit of tunnel vision. Cash shop in no way indicates by itself any kind of revenue issue. It indicates, like DLCs, season passes, pay-for cosmetic items in a myriad of games and similar vehicles of additional revenue, that the publisher is... looking for additional revenue. That's it.

This doesn't mean they're not making enough money. As a matter of fact all the indications for investors document indicates that FFXIV's revenue is strong and improving. But no matter how strong the revenue, publishers are *always* looking for sources of additional income, because it's their job.

World of Warcraft has had a cash shop for the longest time, and definitely did not have any kind of "revenue issue" when it was implemented.

I quote from the latest quarterly release:

Massively multiplayer online role playing games such as “FINAL FANTASY XIV” and “DRAGON QUEST X,” have been making favorable progress.

All previous releases since the launch of 2.0 had similar statements indicating growth.

Final Fantasy XIV actually made them revise their earning forecasts upwards back in May.

The equation "they're looking for more money = they are in trouble" is an extremely ignorant one to make, and from what we know is also utterly false in the case of a successful game from FFXIV, so you may want to leave the tinfoil hat at home, and justify your dislike of the cash shop just with what it is, a personal dislike, instead of trying so hard to back it up with false assumptions you can't make and that conflict with everything we know (which is unfortunately a problem with internet discussion. Many seem to be afraid to admit that they just dislike something without factual justification, so they have to invent knowledge they simply don't have).

Mictrotransactions are an extremely rooted element in today's gaming market, and there's simply no reason for a company aiming to generate revenue like square enix to ignore that revenue source when they have ways to utilize it without impacting the balance of the game, like almost every developer out there does. You're free not to like them, but using them to justify baseless conclusions on the game's performance is just a bit silly.

I'll give you a hint: Games with revenue issues don't go 'round organizing fan festivals in three different parts of the world, nor are heavily present at every major gaming event taking up an extremely relevant part of a publisher's top tier booth.

A good way to avoid blundering around blindly when talking about revenue is checking the documentation for investors first, and get some insight on how the specific market works. Your post indicates that neither those steps have been performed, replaced at best by hearsay, at worst by random guessing.