only 500k subscribers?

[myahele]

To be fair, SE had very low expectation in regards to ARR. With only a 2 yrs production and probably limited budget; it FAR exceeded the number of copies/sub to break even.

[cramerb535]

We are a niche community. Personally, if there are 500k people that love this game like I do, then I am so happy. I stopped caring about sub number many years ago. If you can find a good FC you are all set.

[Welsper59]

Need I post the emotional closing speech for launch? They didn't exactly expect as large of a player population as we have, probably didn't expect anywhere close to even 100k, so I'm quite sure they're still happy about anything above their initial predicted numbers and constantly remember that people come in and people leave.

Dem feelz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE9G3ByXKIE

[Raist]

The 500k number is from a report generated around/prior to March of 2014. The same number of active subscribers appears to have been stated in another interview as well... which was posted on March 08, 2014:

http://www.4gamer.net/games/139/G013991/20140307079/

Considering that it has been repeatedly mentioned in their financial reports since then that the FFXIV: ARR continues to be "making favorable progress", and compound that with all the heightened congestion we see as new content is added that seems to indicate marked increases in either new or returning players paying to play again (or combination of both)... it's pretty safe to expect the numbers are much larger now.

[Orophin]

All I know is that the devs were more than surprised when 1 million people tried to jam their servers on launch day. 500k subs is probably a more than sustainable number for them, especially when this is paired up with the stuff they're selling in the cash shop.

I doubt they'd be having fanfests in three separate continents, continuing to push out continual updates or launching a new expansion if the game were in such a sorry state. They might lose some money on the China deal if it's truly not doing as well as reported, but the fact that I'm hitting a queue everyday I login is usually a good sign for the game's health.

[Jynx]

As long as the game remains profitable nobody should have anything to worry about.

I'm sure somebody is going to run in and tell us this is why we need a cash shop though and somehow it covers the "Cost" of development.

[314159265358979323846264338327]

I played Eve Online for ten years. Don't think it ever had more than 500,000 subscribers. And, it never mattered to me. I never had trouble finding players.

It hit more than 500k back in 2013, but they're also on the same server so there's that.

[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

[NoahArks]

Who cares? 500k is pretty darn good for this game and it will be profitable even if it drops to 300k. We all know that at one point in the game (mostly when you have the best gear possible to get without coil) only the real "diehards" will stay till there's a update that would really add a lot of things. It won't be weird if we'd have a few million people subscribed for the first few months of the expansion.

[LalaRu]

Do I am in an alive world filled by players? YES
Do I am able to do group content as duties and raids and all? YES
Do I like the game? YES
Do the Publisher's stock market prices affect my gaming life? NO, it surely will when game closes, but I cannot help it so why I have to care...