TIME: Interview with Yoshi

[tocsin]

While there probably isn't 4 million "active" subs. there is probably at the very least 1 million of those users active. Which is still great considering what Yoshi-P was aiming for 250-300k.

The game is a great success.

If they have that many active subs, ill eat my boot. asking for a 25% retention rate, with three systems worth of free trials, plus 5-15k accounts banned per week for RMT, is ridiculous.

I would probably say it is closer to 700k-750k.

[Bluevann]

If they have that many active subs, ill eat my boot. asking for a 25% retention rate, with three systems worth of free trials, plus 5-15k accounts banned per week for RMT, is ridiculous.

I would probably say it is closer to 700k-750k.

Last I've read, 4 million read accounts is "across FFXI, DQX and FFXIV". Last I've read, the active accounts are around 500k, though I don't remember if it's JUST on XIV, or across all their MMORPGs again.

Plus, they're counting bots in there too.

[Magis]

Last I've read, 4 million read accounts is "across FFXI, DQX and FFXIV". Last I've read, the active accounts are around 500k, though I don't remember if it's JUST on XIV, or across all their MMORPGs again.

Plus, they're counting bots in there too.

In Jan. 1mil across XI, XIV, and DQO. 500k sub's in FFXIV.

[Itseotle]

I totally agree. I mean the tree in other games is interesting, I guess. But you only have one class per character, so the tree helps create different style of play. But I personally prefer different jobs, instead of different specs. I do hope they create support jobs.

Imagine, if you will, a FFXIV Skill Tree for a Warrior that has:

-Berserk no longer Incompacitates
-Storm's Eye Duration Increased by 15 seconds
-Critical Hits now restore 10 TP
-Vengeance grants Wrath without Defiance
-Foresight grants increased critical hit chance while active

-vs-

-Blood for Blood healing is increased to 25%
-Holmgang no longer binds the user and the range is extended to 20 yalms
-Wrath stacks reduce incoming damage by 1% per stack
-Fracture lowers the targets STR by 0.5% per tick, stacking 10 times.
-Foresight also reduces magic damage by 10%

Your current warrior, while an excellent offtank and decent DPS in his own right, can now specialize even further by choosing to enchance his offensive capabilities or his defensive capabilities.

[Starlord]

If they have that many active subs, ill eat my boot. asking for a 25% retention rate, with three systems worth of free trials, plus 5-15k accounts banned per week for RMT, is ridiculous.

I would probably say it is closer to 700k-750k.

Well, no one knows how many subs this game has but SE. I am just making an educated guess. having a 25% retention rate from the number 4 million is actually not that ridiculous. 4 million--->1 million, that's a big dip. Only SE knows how many they have, I am merely taking a guess based on the 4 million registered accounts and making a decent deduction ( minus 3 mil) to arrive at 1 million.

Could be 700k like you say, but 1 mil isn't ridiculous :P.

[Fenral]

In Jan. 1mil across XI, XIV, and DQO. 500k sub's in FFXIV.

January of 2014. Which was right on the heels of 2.1. There are no current figures besides what they themselves have said in promotional material, which we have no pressing reason to doubt except when people pull old figures out of context.

[tocsin]

Could be 700k like you say, but 1 mil isn't ridiculous :P.

I could investigate further, but just to name a single source http://www.ics.uci.edu/~tdebeauv/fil...Wretention.pdf average retention rate of games over 6 months old is 75% quitting in the first month, and 70% of the remaining playerbase left within a year and a half.

That would imply a final retention rate of 7.5%, for the average MMO (WoW, EVE, LOTRO, D&DO). Now, I would assume that FFXIV, being a more casual based MMO, may have a SLIGHTLY higher retention rate, but I wouldnt bet money on the number being higher than 15%.

Based on that number, 600-700k subs sounds about right. if you think about it, since January, we have had a LOT of veteran players become disinterested and move on, especially with the lack of new persistent content for non-casual players (gold saucer is casual content.)

Since 2.5 (now 3 months ago), we havent had a new gear set, new raids, new crafting content, new gathering content, not even so much as a QoL improvement for our RMT spam. Plainly put, there just isnt a lot to do, once you finish capping out your gear, if you arent a fan of minigames.

[Starlord]

-snip-

That is only if this game is like WoW ( as it would seem the site you provided is talking about WoW only ( granted I am not reading all the small print, as I am not about to read a contract worth of info lol). WoW also has/had 10 million active subs at one point. FFXIV had 4 million accounts (that people are trying the game out to see if they like it.) Naturally there is always a "fall off" phase where after there free trial is up, you will see people leaving because the game isn't worth it to them. Is it really 70%? From the link provided this is showing only 1 game.

Every game is different, has different sub numbers/accounts, That has to be taken into account.

Anyways, like I said, no one really knows but SE, The game is a success with your 700k or my 1 million, both are successful numbers in SE eyes.

Edit: Also, people do take breaks and come back in a month or 2 and stay for 3-4 months then take another 2 month break.

It's hard to really accurately see the retention rate of a MMO. People come, people go, new players join and stay, others find it not appealing.

[Riardon]

4kk accounts registred is not crazy and it's not daily active accounts. It means they bought the game and registered. Many of them quited, some banned, other stayed. Some people play every day, some play few hours per week and some other pay 2-3 months then they quit and come back again. That's absolutely normal for an mmo. FFXIV proved a huge success. Very few games if none at all ever achieved that. To fully recover after its death and not only that but also turn to huge profit. And the fun just now begins with the expansion. Now we gonna get truly new content for the first time. Expect loads of people in June and July. Anyway I really don't care as long as I see people around. Population always fluctuate.

[PrimeEvilPanda]

It's always good to see positive publications regarding the video game industry, especially in TIME magazine of all things. Seeing something like this on this internationally recognized news outlet makes me squeal because the things you love are being recognized as a legit medium and I won't be looked on too weirdly when I'm retired and 90 still playing Dragon Age.