http://www.pangamers.com/gaming/fina...-and-crafting/

PSLS: Have you taken, or are you going to take any steps to respond to some of the upcoming changes in the MMO market, such as with Elder Scrolls Online, which is now coming to consoles and moving to a free-to-play model?

"NY: No, we do not feel that we are being influenced by that kind of model shift. Especially with an MMORPG, it is a kind of a game as a service, where we are kind of almost in the service industry.

Say you are in the restaurant business and you own a steakhouse, and you see another competitive steakhouse that a popular feature or some other element that draws people in, of course you would have to look at what they are doing and they are keeping their quality of meats, and what they do in terms of service. In that same respect, we do look at the other MMO titles that are out there and do some research on what they do and have, Elder Scrolls Online included. But, for FFXIV and the players that belong to the world of Eorzea, we feel that we don’t need to put things in that are not necessary for that game.

So, just because ESO moved into a free-to-play subscription model, it doesn’t necessarily mean for us to move into that direction as well. Also, for use we have taken player surveys and took a look at what our customer satisfaction level is and we actually garnered data that shows that over 80% of our players are satisfied with the subscription model and they feel very assured that it is a constant. You are safe to be in that environment, and you know that you can expect a decent amount of updates and content. So, we don’t believe that FFXIV needs to shift in that direction and not everything that other competitors or titles do will necessarily apply to our title."