A new tactic for the dissatisfied

[Connor]

The other factor that hinders a new player's monetary value now, is the extremely generous and ever increasingly generous free trial. If they keep expanding this thing it will only be another 6 years or so before 7.0 is in the free trial. At present SE are only making money off of new players that subscribe before the end of the free trial or the sub time for the two most recent expansions. And if the game doesn't convert that new player into a long term subscriber, then SE is actually losing money on the free trial.

This is a point I forgot to consider actually but you’re right, when accounting for free trials it does mean that SE are going to end up losing money if they’re putting all their eggs into the new player basket. And as you say there’s a limit to how many people can be ‘new players’, as inevitably there will come a point where everyone who wants to play the game already has, meaning new player numbers start to dry up.