I want an official response.

[kyuven]

I remember when Eq2 had about this much stuff in the cash shop, it slowly but surely became 50% of the production was cash shop exclusive. It started the same way back when it was still a sub game.

I wouldn't go so far as saying having a cash shop is the end of the world, but on a sub game nothing in a cash shop should be exclusive, every item in it should be available in game, be it rare drop or time consuming quest. Cash shop imho should be a shortcut for non-p2w items.

Ironically enough most F2P games with extensive cash shop have a means to trade in-game currency for cash shop currency, with exchange rates dictated by the players (though there's rumors that the devs will "push" the market if it becomes unfavorable one way or another)
EQ2 isn't one of those games. EQ2 also never pulled in the numbers FFXIV is currently pulling in.
A better comparison would be WoW, as much as I dread the comparisons. WoW has a cash shop. They've had a cash shop for years. Hell I stopped playing in early Cataclysm and the cash shop was already old hat by then. They also gated "content" with their CCG in order to encourage people to buy it.
WoW is definitely not dying any time soon.
"But FFXIV is a lot newer than WoW! WoW went for X number of years before selling items in the cash shop!"
Uh, yeah. The market changes. Games get more expensive to produce and run. Sometimes you need to sell a few things on the side to supplement the income and make absolutely sure you can afford to keep pushing updates. Especially since this game has one of the least expensive p2p fees on the market.
Hell you use EQ2 as an example. Do you remember how many "content packs" EQ1 and EQ2 had? EQ2 actually had the "bright" idea to try to release very small content packs and charge for them. They were QUITE small, and this was in addition to annual full priced expansions.
Well, game companies can't do that anymore, and don't feel they should. Microtransactions of absolute fluff such as minions and wedding ceremonies are more profitable, and allow them to release bigger content patches as well as supplement the development costs of expansions. Like it or not our money is being used to mostly pay maintenance, server fees, and for the unpaid content we DO get.
I am not at all surprised that the cash shop goes big around the same time the expansion is announced.
Also, if you don't like the cash shop, quit. It's not going away, complaining about it won't make it go away. The only way to make it go away is to not give them money.

[Dayne]

Ironically enough most F2P games with extensive cash shop have a means to trade in-game currency for cash shop currency, with exchange rates dictated by the players (though there's rumors that the devs will "push" the market if it becomes unfavorable one way or another)
EQ2 isn't one of those games. EQ2 also never pulled in the numbers FFXIV is currently pulling in.
A better comparison would be WoW, as much as I dread the comparisons. WoW has a cash shop. They've had a cash shop for years. Hell I stopped playing in early Cataclysm and the cash shop was already old hat by then. They also gated "content" with their CCG in order to encourage people to buy it.
WoW is definitely not dying any time soon.
"But FFXIV is a lot newer than WoW! WoW went for X number of years before selling items in the cash shop!"
Uh, yeah. The market changes. Games get more expensive to produce and run. Sometimes you need to sell a few things on the side to supplement the income and make absolutely sure you can afford to keep pushing updates. Especially since this game has one of the least expensive p2p fees on the market.
Hell you use EQ2 as an example. Do you remember how many "content packs" EQ1 and EQ2 had? EQ2 actually had the "bright" idea to try to release very small content packs and charge for them. They were QUITE small, and this was in addition to annual full priced expansions.
Well, game companies can't do that anymore, and don't feel they should. Microtransactions of absolute fluff such as minions and wedding ceremonies are more profitable, and allow them to release bigger content patches as well as supplement the development costs of expansions. Like it or not our money is being used to mostly pay maintenance, server fees, and for the unpaid content we DO get.
I am not at all surprised that the cash shop goes big around the same time the expansion is announced.
Also, if you don't like the cash shop, quit. It's not going away, complaining about it won't make it go away. The only way to make it go away is to not give them money.

I wasn't comparing two games at all, i was comparing two cash shops, yes SoE has tried a great many different way to make money off Eq2, most did not work, the one that did was the cash shop, and it very much started out this way. That is what the comparison was for, the game is irrelevant, the number of players is also irrelevant, the greed of the company is very relevant though(SoE imo easily being near the top of the greed list). Although i don't see SE as a greedy company i have seen this slippery slope before.

My main point still stands, i am paying a sub, i want access to every bit of the game even if i don't intend to use it, a shortcut(not p2w) doesn't bother me though. What people tend to miss is they don't hire new devs to make this stuff, they just assign current ones to stop making sub content and start making shop content. Which over time will hurt the game.

Edit* Also Eq2 does have a system to trade in game currency for cash shop points. The Kronos