I doubt Final Fantasy XI will ever focus on soloing. It's main object seems to be partying, and it's focused on partying because it's supposed to be like you play one part in a party typical to the other games in the series.

I read the XI census before I rebought the game today. I had to make sure it wasn't dead. Hopefully something will happen to lower that fee though. Yeah I know "it's not that much for a month" but if they estimate that 500,000 players are playing, do they really need ~$6,500,000/mo. to keep up the game?