only 500k subscribers?

[Roris]

Considering both the FF brand name and the fact that it's on 3 separate platforms, while other WoW clone MMOs of its ilk that have gone F2P since then were PC only but still managed to get closer to the 1 mllion mark if not slightly surpassed it, I agree that 500k is pretty subpar. Although considering how badly 1.0 was received due to how badly it was rushed, it's no wonder 500k is considered a success.

That said it's still well within expectations and has enough subs to turn a decent profit, but only SE has the hard numbers and can see if subs go down or up to determine if the game is stable enough or if they should go for more aggressive monetization options aka. B2P or F2P. Especially because ARR was built with this in mind right from the start, unlike XI which would take far more resources to retrofit a cash shop and all it entails into its aging codebase, which is one of the main reasons it remains P2P to this day.

[Merylx]

Wait a second, I'm sure the official FFXIV: Realm Reborn website said it had over 3M subscribers? I've not checked the website in quite a while, but I'm sure it had a banner that said so a couple of months back?

I'm unsure of where the OP is getting these claims.

[Roris]

Wait a second, I'm sure the official FFXIV: Realm Reborn website said it had over 3M subscribers? I've not checked the website in quite a while, but I'm sure it had a banner that said so a couple of months back?

Over 2.5 million "adventurers", which is PR fluff for accounts created. They never were active subs, which is also probably why they removed the banner since it was a bit misleading and I remember someone said they called them out on it on the JP forums.

[Merylx]

Over 2.5 million "adventurers", which is PR fluff for accounts created. They never were active subs, which is also probably why they removed the banner since it was a bit misleading and I remember someone said they called them out on it on the JP forums.

Nevertheless, 500k sub is pretty decent. Although I thought it was well over 1M, 500k is extremely stable in my opinion and nothing to feel sorry about. That number could well increase when the expansion hits, as there's more promo + returning players, etc. I'm really happy about 500k. There's many MMO's that have came out in the last few years that have, for the most part, went immediately Free-to-play after a few months. FFXIV is doing pretty well.

[Deathscythe343]

Doesn't surprise me. While this game is good, I don't see it getting much bigger. It has a niche share of the market. Don't think it will ever get close to WoW's low numbers.

[Edellis]

Nothing will ever get close to wow's low numbers. Any MMO developer who thinks it will is retarded

[Phe]

Nothing will ever get close to wow's low numbers. Any MMO developer who thinks it will is retarded

Why?
We've got like 20 mil. MMORPG gamers out there.
half of them, like 10 mil. is willing to pay subscription fees.

there will always be a market leader.
atm it's WoW. when WoW isn't anymore, then someone else will be market leader with the majority of MMORPG gamers.
i guess SE won't have objections to be market leader, but subscription numbers indicate that they won't.

to become market leader is surely a desirable goal.
which SE won't reach.

basically the scale is: not profitable > profitable > market leader
we are in the vast middle range of cost-efficient MMOs

[ChriZirhC]

the reports on that article are from march 2014.

[kyuven]

The first EverQuest game lived and breathed for many, many years on about as many subscribers as FFXIV has now, and they didn't even have to compete with market saturation.
500k doesn't sound like a lot, but keep in mind how oversaturated the market is, and that games with more tend to be F2P models where they cant legitimately count anyone who has ever made an account and logged in ONCE "active."

Also TESO and SWTOR may have had that many subscribers at one time, but any analyst worth their salt would take a look at how many they LOST from one month to the next to project how the game would do. SWTOR, for example, is a great game to play for a single month til you beat it. Not so great to keep coming back to except for content updates.
FFXIV, meanwhile, may have fewer subscribers than SWTOR did at that time, but the numbers are likely very stable in comparison and the game itself actually works and works well (TESO and SWTOR both had more bugs than a new york apartment in summer) compounded with the fact that the development team's biggest gripe against them has been...housing prices and a cash shop.
And that's all I'll say about those two because they're not the topic here :P

[Vaer]

Their team size seems pretty small based on what they said at fanfest so 500k doesn't seem like they are hurting that bad, and I see tons of Sleipnirs around, gold/platinum weddings are being sold and money from fantasia.