only 500k subscribers?

[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.

[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...

[DasFelix]

500k Subs is actually pretty fantastic, there aren't many Subscription MMO's out there that Sport that many.
After all this isn't a Race, this is a Product and going by the Sep 2014 Financial Statement it is a very well selling Product
Also I'm pretty sure that was Daily Logins and not Subs.
There was an Interview about that here:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-FFXIV-and-DQX

[Anty]

worse than I thought if it's true

the numbers are likely to go up with 3.0. If 3.0 doesnt deliver or doesnt bring up something big and new, it will likely go down a lot. Why?

- server stability is still worse then in lotsa F2P games
- Many patches offer new, yet absolutley uncreative content. Mainly blabla from npcs.
- Fights are still 100% scripted and have not a single random ascpect. The people i know want to react on a boss fight or in a fight in general, getting their skill tested, not learn a fight via youtube then
faceroll it
- the strong lockout policy pissed so many ppl off that they stopped playing all together.
- new dungeons and primal fights are so boring - because they offer no random aspects. that they are getting boring while you do it the first time.
This is quite new. I have never experienced that in any game before. also not in other mmos in that extreme way.
- the ilvl madness makes every progression useless. you can as well just log in for 2 weeks every like 6 months since everythign wil be outdated anyways, so why bother with capped tomes, just play when the caps are being removed.
- there is close to zero incentive for ppl who actually like to play with a group or friends, the communities fall apart (usually were formed from former 1.0, ffxi, or other games, but this game kills the community due to the way content is designed)

[Thayos]

- there is close to zero incentive for ppl who actually like to play with a group or friends, the communities fall apart

I think this is the game's single-biggest problem.

Provide content that makes sense for FCs to run together -- and without weekly lockouts, which only fracture communities -- and this game will go on for a very, very long time.

[Nanaho]

even if it's 500k Subscribers, with a $12 per account, per month, not including what they're raking in with the Cash shop, that's still 6 million dollars per month, this game is doing just fine.