Think we are about to see another wave.

[Shinxwildflower]

Being hyper-focused on short-term profits is not a viable business strategy.

Here's the thing, the psychology behind those purchases are to show them off, specifically to show them off to the have-nots. The problem is the non-whale audience is bleeding out hard. It's not all that fun showing off to another whale so the whales eventually get bored and quit. While things look rosy now the cash shop revenue over the next few quarters is going to tank hard as the whales abandon ship.

To be fair, FF14 isn't all that different - all those fancy looking clothing, weird mounts you can't get anyway else in game (like the 8 person mount), with the random emotes in the store. Like really, why is a snap emote like $2? Why nit just give it for folks in game from doing a quest?