December won't be the death of the game, but we are going to see about 30-40% of the playerbase leave. Most of the folks that take the incentive to post on the forums are typically avid players, and will stay. Unfortunately, that's only about 15% or so, of the actual playerbase. There's no way of knowing how desolate realms will become until P2P comes around.

Part of the defection is obviously that it's too early (let's be honest) to start paying, even for those of us who are interested in seeing the game survive. Part of it is that there are three or four other top-tier MMOs getting released before we see significant ground covered on the road to 2.0.

Regardless, it was clearly stated that the plug isn't getting pulled until at least 2.0. I believe Yoshi stated several months ago that PS3 would likely be the make-or-break point, it's just that now we have final confirmation this is the milestone SE has in mind. If 2.0 and PS3 launch continue to lose money, then it's the true death of XIV, case closed.