Quote Originally Posted by Alexandre_Noireau View Post
Is probably an test measure for the probable future of the playerbase numbers during Shadowbringers, as Shadowbringer is probably the last big expansion this game will receive in its life cycle (8 years old already, yes, i count since its LAUNCH, not since its RE-LAUNCH).

In fact, i dare say, and i hope i'm wrong, that Shadowbringers will have very few server issues during launch since players coming to the game are each time less and the retention value of this game is low, thus, Shadowbringers will probably be the last high time we will see in this game playerbase. They need to implement this system earlier for when the game begins its long downward decline. And tbh, XIV already helped SE financially enough (not enough to save XV it seems... But hey, it got it launched and recovered 1.0 blunder), XIV already served its purpose well, Shadowbringers signals, probably, the gentle entry into that good night for XIV.
I think you're completely wrong. Yoshida mentioned in an interview that the reason he's doing all of this crazy stuff he didn't think he'd do, like adding blue mage, is because numbers haven't been stagnating during Stormblood but have in fact INCREASED. So he feels like he can stop feeling caged by the word "MMO" and try new things and add a lot of various stuff that doesn't necessarily have to fit into that MMO mold. I think the popularity of FFXIV is only in its infancy. After all, if you want an MMO with great story, beautiful graphics (although not necessarily HQ) and with a lot of stuff to do, then FFXIV is one of the best on the market.

I'm thinking with its continued success, we're going to see more and more new and interesting things that will continue to draw fans. And with all of the fan service they're doing for Shadow Bringers, I'm guessing 5.0 is going to be a success too. Viera, Blue Mage, a flip on the WoL script and potentially even getting to be the "bad guy", Gunblade and dancer (???) classes and hopefully a rework of the combat system that makes them even more intuitive and fun to play........? AND whispers of Ishgard housing, to boot! Yeah. I think the game still has quite a lot of life in it.

Besides, Yoshida mentioned he at least wanted the game to last 10 years (from ARR relaunch) with an expansion every 2 years. So, we should get at least one more expansion after Shadow Bringers imo. After that, it's up in the air. Depends on how well 5.0 is received, ultimately.


THAT SAID, I do think it's to help with older content because we're going to get to a tipping point where they can't incentivize people enough to do all of the content that needs doing and people are going to need some way to get through old content.