Free 2 Play still being considered?

[Seth_Ahriman]

Rau I just have to ask

wanna do dynamis? thats 20 bucks down in order to unlock the classics, and another 20 to unlock the promathia ones.
wanna do salvage? thatl be another 20 bucks
wanna do the cop storyline? 5 bucks per chapter

they call that expansion packs last i checked :P

[Murugan]

they call that expansion packs last i checked :P

FFXI's expansions had much more content than that in them.

I don't see why anyone would want a Free to Play model, where we get less than what we currently get with a subscription.

Most free to play models are a horrible value. They give less, for a higher price under the assumption that the current/classic MMO subscription model was more appropriate for casual players who could not play all the content the game had to offer.

So to get that level of content they expect the minority of the "hardcore players" to pay a much larger higher price through injecting all shorts of microtransactions. Well how many people who played FFXI for all those years, with the expansions etc. did not get to play through a large amount of all content?

I played FFXI whether you were in a large "hardcore" linkshell or not even on the worst server you had opportunities to do all sorts of content. Expansions are fine, but when they start cutting up content into micro-transactions I think most people end up getting much less and paying more for what they do get than they ever would have.

[Dhalmel]

There's nothing wrong with kids playing, I know a kickass RDM that was only 14 years old back in Siren server.

[Zenaku]

There's nothing wrong with kids playing, I know a kickass RDM that was only 14 years old back in Siren server.

that one kid and i bet he did not play wow for long or at all kids who only play wow for years and join ffxi or ffxiv are hard to deal with even grown ass people are hard to deal with if they only play wow and if there the type of player who think they don't need to learn anything because they play wow and wow have everything type of person.

[ssppiikkeeyy]

There's nothing wrong with kids playing, I know a kickass RDM that was only 14 years old back in Siren server.

u were on serin to woot

[Lienn]

Well, it was expected. FFXIV is being built toward F2P + cash shop mechanics. This is probably the plan B for when 2.0 fail.

[Arel203]

They don't have much of a choice if they don't get subscription numbers up.

Come 2.0 release, they have to map out a realistic business model. If the game doesn't sell significantly, they need to decide to;

A: Introduce a cash shop that is aggressive enough to substain profit while maintaining P2P service.

B: Go F2P, attract a TON of players, and rely on an aggressive cash shop to bring in profit (This almost ALWAYS works, but it can also lead to the game tanking fast, and hard, as a poorly developed cash shop that is too limiting, will cause the game to become 100% loss)

Or C: Attract enough sales across all platforms and maintain enough subscriptions with minimal development cost to map out a profit to break even and more, within a few years.

At this point, they've lost millions. And SE as a company wasn't doing that well even before this. But this has hurt them more then anything before, they're lossing a lot of money every day in this game.

And E3 coming up can hurt them even more, not showing the game, and not providing interest, will just cause it to be a sleeper release and it'll die fast.

Or, hyping it too much, will get people to rush out and buy it, they'll see the game in its current state, likely hate most aspects of it as with launch, and they'll lose that playerbase for good. First impressions for MMOs are everything. SE has a lot of brand loyalty, and there's a huge market for an MMO in the console industry, but only being on the PS3 isn't going to help them much. The PS3 is not that strong in software sales, and the want for an MMO on PS3 alone is not a proven market. Because the PS3 was initially more of an entertainment system, a lot of the owners are enthusiasts that own PCs already.

Granted, a lot of speculation. But the simple fact is; the playerbase needs to realize that like any company, SE needs to make money, if this game doesn't turn around fast with 2.0, they need to make a decision quickly, and effectively. F2P models have proven to be succesful more so then any other business model when done right. Look at games like GW, Lineage 2, GA, AION EU, the playerbase and profit margian for these games has doubled and tripled in just months of being switched.

But, the key always comes down to what the major playerbase will want. This is going to be all about marketing. FF has never really attracted the younger playerbase in the US, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Most of us from XI played it because of the somewhat mature nature of the community. Part of what made it popular was the mentality, it favored lore, real RPG elements, and visual effect over "omg let's kill stuff".

All in all, like all of you i'm hoping SE pulls out all the stops. But as a consumer we need to realize their position, and respect what's best for them as a company, because it's either that, or let the game die. With the digital and physical distribution cost for the re-release, there's not a lot of room for error.

[Zenaku]

if FFXIV goes f2p and it have cash shop and stuff i don't know what i'll play o.o i may quit MMO all together ffxiv is pretty much my last hope for a good MMO. everything else is a wow-clone with no story at all just quest,dungeon,pvp -.-

[Ruisu]

everything else is a wow-clone with no story at all just quest,dungeon,pvp -.-

Now that's completely untrue. TERA, Blade and Soul, Guild Wars 2, etc. Granted, I really don't care to play any of those games at all. But the game going f2p would not affect the content, it'd affect how much you pay.

[Tricksy]

F2P and Cash Shop- No Thanks!