It's unlikely in all honesty. As long as it's making them money they will keep it running. Considering the amount of plans they have (slowly increasing the cap to 99 staring with 85 in June) it's unlikely that they will shut the game down by the end of the year.

I guess I'd be disappointed, but not really that upset or angry. Anyone who goes into an MMO not realizing that ultimately their work will be for moot when the servers go offline or when they quit have a bigger problem.



I think that now you can at least say that FFXI is on the way to a very slow death, but it's probably still got several years. Look at the lifespans of other MMOs as popular as FFXI and even ones that aren't. MMOs don't die quickly and beyond a certain point upkeep on servers is relatively cheap and even new content isn't that expensive. It's hugely profitable as long as there's a modicum of interest and considering how hardcore the FFXI community is there's certain to be plenty of people around for a good while.