Yoshida: Final Fantasy XIV Could Go F2P "If 80% - 90% Of Our Players" Want It
In an interview on GamesIndustry.biz, Final Fantasy XIV Game Director Naoki Yoshida mentioned that the game could possibly one day go free to play. See the full quote below:
"That being said, if 80% or 90% of our players are demanding we go free-to-play, then we might need to look at shifting our business model," he says. "But we would also need to change our game design to match that business model. It all depends on what the game design should be based on what our players' needs are." -Yoshida
As-is Final Fantasy XIV remains one of the few large subscription based MMORPGs out there. A free to play version of the game isn't likely to happen anytime soon, but it's interesting to see that Yoshida didn't rule the possibility out. Yoshida also pointed out "our active subscribers is the largest it's ever been" so the game is doing quite well.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently the second most popular subscription MMORPG after World of Warcraft with a total of "over 10 million cumulative players". Which simply means over 10 million people have played Final Fantasy XIV sometime since release. World of Warcraft on the other hand peaked at 12 million active subscriptions and given that Square Enix has never disclosed active subscribers, an apples-to-apples comparison is impossible.
"With the release of Stormblood, we thought we would reach this sort of plateau period as an online service but we were surprised to see so many new players coming in as well as returning players coming back. Our active subscriber base has become the largest it has ever been, so we haven't reached that plateau yet, we haven't peaked, so until we reach that we just need to focus on continuing to push forward." -Yoshida
Final Fantasy XIV is currently free to play up until level 35, but Yoshida stated that they may consider raising that cap once the game's next expansion launches and the level cap is raised. Those interested in the game are encouraged to check out the full article over at GamesIndustry.biz.
