only 500k subscribers?

[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 you can as well just log in for 2 weeks every like 6 months since everythign wil be outdated anyways, so why bother with capped tomes, just play when the caps are being removed.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.

[Velhart]

It will increase come expansion. This is a thing for MMO's, even WoW, where over a period of time when the initial game is released or it's expansion pack, the numbers boom and rise very high. Over time, it drops to lower numbers till the next expansion arrives. If I had to take an educated guess, I would say come expansion (if advertised well), you will see a ton of returning players and new ones, possibly hitting back into 800k to (a stretch here) a million subscribers. Over time in Heavensward, probably drop to about 600k-700k. Games like WoW did not get 10 million+ subscribers in a day. This was built up in a course of 5-6 years. ARR has been out for nearly 1.5 years now. The more interesting question is, what do you think numbers will be if SE keeps pushing hard 5 years from now?

[ExKage]

In this thread, people can't read. The numbers taken from the March 2014 report are that the three MMOs were barely at 1 million subscribers.

SE themselves gave the 500k number, but they did not count China's subscribers.

"Square Enix tells MCV that the actual number of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn paying subscribers sits at 500,000, with over 2.5m registered users. These numbers do not include the game's performance in China, which charges Chinese gamers on a per-minute pay model. A Realm Reborn will launch in Korea in 2015."

[Gardes]

The more interesting question is, what do you think numbers will be if SE keeps pushing hard 5 years from now?

Comparing the amount of "yes we can" to the "no we can't" from devs about various things in general, I wouldn't go all in on SE ever doubling on their stabilized sub rate.

[Velhart]

Comparing the amount of "yes we can" to the "no we can't" from devs about various things in general, I wouldn't go all in on SE ever doubling on their stabilized sub rate.

How many people have truly unsubbed from "no we cannot" statements? Not that many. Most of the time, people leave because they are bored or frustrated dealing with the content/players. First expansions are always famous for getting a game booming and players get a stronger understanding on what direction the developers want to take. That was the case for Burning Crusade for WoW and Rise of the Zilart for FFXI. Heavensward looks like it is going to take FFXIV in the direction it needs, I look forward to how it all works out.

[NefarioCall]

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.

Eve is more of an outlier than WoW in that it is one of if not the only MMO i am aware of that has lived more than a decade with subscriber numbers that continue to CLIMB. Although of course that slow steady rise is still in a range far below the millions. The fact it is probably the most hardcore MMO out there keeps the numbers low, but the game is also constantly updated to keep graphically and systematically current, which is why it doesn't feel like it was made 10 years ago.

Most 'successful' P2P MMOs experience up to 5 years of growth and then a steady decline. The first expansion is a big boon period because many players tend to 'wait' for that expansion period to start on a new MMO. SE probably knows this, which is why they are giving Heavensward such a 'western' flavor, and 'mature' at least artistically/thematically.

Even if the 500k number is accurate, that number is likely to expand gradually up and through the 2nd or 3rd expansion periods if this game follows success trends. Add in china and korea etc etc, and this game might be on pace to peak at several million.

[Thayos]

Considering the number of times during the past week I've had to wait in server queues when logging in, I'm 100 percent not at all worried about the game's population. Things are going to get crazy when the expansion hits.