December 2011 is the end

[captainpicard]

Another user made a forum post that had a "like" this if you are going to pay and another "like" this if you are not going to pay. I checked it a moment ago and it was at 600+ will pay and 200+ will not pay so it is basically sitting at a 1 out of 3 players will not continue to pay as of the writing of this article.

The results are misleading. This forum is heavily skewed towards people who are fervent players of the game. My guess is many people who still log on and play occasionally or even frequently do not post here. Thus, I really see this as 1 out of 3 players that still care will not pay.

The results do not account for the vast number of people who still log on but do not care enough to post. They also do not account for the vast number of people who quit long ago, and now will have no incentive to return (except for perhaps a very short time periodically to see any progress)

In other words, the forums put forward the voice of the very vocal minority, and do not reflect the majority of players.

Consider the following:

1. The very small current player base, which is propped up by free service
2. The forth coming premiere triple A titles
3. The road map that clues potential new subs into the fact that this game is essentially not going to massively change until 2013

These factors all lead me to believe that those choosing to subscribe through out 2012 will be very alone in the game.

I wish the game success, but I see this move as another in a long series of SE blunders. I understand they would like to start seeing a revenue stream from the game and do not wish to provide free services for another entire year, however, I can hardly fathom how saying the current title is 50% complete, stating that they would not charge until the game was "ready", and then announcing they were going to charge in December 2011, while putting out a road map to "readiness" showing 2013, is staying true to the course.

There have been many comments about the cost vs. people's budgets. I agree with most that the monthly service fee is not the issue, it is the principal behind it that is the issue. SE has exhausted all their personal currency with me, and these recent announcements just reiterate how that personal currency has been squandered.

Another user commented that the commercials for needy 3rd world children could not cause him/her to donate, so they certainly were not going to fund ongoing development of a game for a multi-national corporation.

I could not agree more. The company has other revenue streams, other IPs, and this is merely a money grab.

Ultimately, you can take the "those that won't pay" from the other forum post and multiply it by 10x. You can also take the "those that will pay" and subtract at least a third, because something will come up, a new title will come out, any number of circumstances will occur that change their mind.

This is now officially a sinking ship, until v2.0 is released.

I'll check it out when that happens, until then, I bid you farewell, if for no other reason then I do not anticipate there being many people left to play with after December, making the relative cost vs. benefit untenable.

[Platinumstorm]

Other polls outside of the lodestone actually show more of a 66% retention loss. It might mean there is a higher concentration of SquareEnix fans on the forums and FFXIV fans outside of the forums. It could also just be representative of people who want the game to succeed but haven't logged into the game within the last 30 days outside of this forum.

Basically what's going to happen is a large chunk of players won't be playing anymore, and the economy is going to go down, down, down, down.

February will see a boost to subscriptions, but maybe only for that one month.

Out of my linkshell of about 10 active players only 1 is committed to subscribing. I have a feeling we skew away from what will be normal, but it's still telling.

[Shikyo]

When they add a fee to a unfinished(hell not even 1/2 way finished) 1 year old title its all over with,
They must have some grand plan set up, because i know they dont expect many ppl at all to pay to play the game as they wait for it to be even considered decent.
I guess they just figure screw it instead of shutting it down and finishing it lets see how many freakin idiots we can get a few bucks off of while we work on this pinto lol.
SWTOR, Tera, GW, and not just mmo's Battle Field 3 UMvC3 MW3 Diablo3 ect ect ect this game will come back make a small splash for one month and die a sad death.

[Anonymoose]

Just because they're not willing to pay now doesn't mean they're not going to come back when the game's worth playing. Hell, they stuck with it through its darkest days just because it was free at the time... I'd put money on the bet that they'd be back (along with a lot of those that quit earlier than now) if 2.0 is a success.

In the meantime, it'll be less resources consumed from SE and those that stay will at least be putting money in. As far as the development process goes, it's Win/Win. Those of us that do stay will have great stories of the limited-time-only experience we got to take part in... and the cataclysm of course.

[Wynn]

/yawn

3 out of 10

[miqokini]

Even if most people leave, it's quite obvious by now that SE isn't going to let this game fail. After their horrid release, do you really think they will just let the game "die" a second death? They would have to be completely insane to let themselves get THAT much bad rep.

Even if NOBODY stayed, they would still release 2.0.

Mark my words.

[captainpicard]

Even if most people leave, it's quite obvious by now that SE isn't going to let this game fail. After their horrid release, do you really think they will just let the game "die" a second death? They would have to be completely insane to let themselves get THAT much bad rep.

Even if NOBODY stayed, they would still release 2.0.

Mark my words.

I don't disagree. I expect they will release v2.0 regardless of subs between now and then.

That overlooks the bigger picture of what I was opining. I don't see a multiplayer game that has 100 people left playing at any given time on a server as value add. The game ceases to exist, in its current form, if the player base drops below a certain point, because content (dungeons for example) become impossible to complete or so time consuming to find the people to run them with that it simply is not worth it.

Tacking a subscription on to the existing game is going to decimate the current player numbers. Who wants to play a multi-player game alone?

[Starlord]

I don't disagree. I expect they will release v2.0 regardless of subs between now and then.

That overlooks the bigger picture of what I was opining. I don't see a multiplayer game that has 100 people left playing at any given time on a server as value add. The game ceases to exist, in its current form, if the player base drops below a certain point, because content (dungeons for example) become impossible to complete or so time consuming to find the people to run them with that it simply is not worth it.

Tacking a subscription on to the existing game is going to decimate the current player numbers. Who wants to play a multi-player game alone?

For one what would it matter?

A)because either way V2.0 will be made by the timeline.

B) The more Revenue they have.. the more Resource will become Available to them.

C)I did a Shout in Besaid and Alot of people are going to pay Im not sure about other servers but my Server is Just that.

D) Even if it Got below a Certain point, even if there was only 100 in the Server everyone will still be in Ul'dah and everyone can still have fun together.

E) If you feel like this is going to be the outcome of the game, why are you even playing? They made their Decision and they said once they have a clear plan and mapped out on the Future of FFXIV thats when the Subs will start.

Well, Its that time Sir.

[captainpicard]

E) If you feel like this is going to be the outcome of the game, why are you even playing?

I am not. I am simply reflecting on the next turn in SE's seemingly endless road of poor decisions.

I was always a proponent of taking this game offline completely after release and taking it to v2.0, rather than letting it limp along like this.

[Platinumstorm]

Even if most people leave, it's quite obvious by now that SE isn't going to let this game fail. After their horrid release, do you really think they will just let the game "die" a second death? They would have to be completely insane to let themselves get THAT much bad rep.

Even if NOBODY stayed, they would still release 2.0.

Mark my words.

I don't think they were going to let the game fail from the beginning, the question is how well are they going to utilize what exists now in the community towards 2.0, and I don't think they're going to do a very good job of that.

Also, for Gath, I went over to your site yesterday to calmly discuss opinions on the subscription, and you're over here trolling? Maybe I went to the wrong place for a calm discussion.