A Year!

[Mirage]

I think XI is pretty much dead now. There are people that still play on occasion, but I don't think it's going to last too much longer. I bet they wouldn't get too much heat if they took down the servers.

The game isn't dead. It doesn't draw in a lot of new players, but the existing player base is big enough to support the game for a long time.

Taking down the servers would be complete lunacy, seeing as the investment of developing the game has paid itself off years ago, and every single month generates a substantial profit for them. At this point, I don't see the game actually being shut down in the next 5 years. We might only have a single server left at that point, but even that would generate enough revenue to pay for server maintenance, while still leaving a small profit for the company.

As for the amount of subscribers, I think 500k is an overstatement. The actual amount of subscribers is probably somewhere around 200-300k. However, this amount would still generate a revenue of around 40 million dollars per year. Now I'm no MMO developer, but I doubt a game like FF11 costs 40 million dollars a year to maintain. The game is already paid for, the only thing they need to spend these 40 millions on is server maintenance/equipment, a few GMs and community representatives. Everything that's not used on that is pure profit.

There's probably just a handful of developers left for the game right now, with probably around another 10-15 people who work as GMs/community reps, and translators. The actual server hardware for FF11's servers is probably not extreme either. The server software is 10 years old, so it probably doesn't require a lot of resources relative to how powerful server hardware today can be. The game doesn't use a lot of bandwidth per client either. I cannot possibly see how this would cost more than 20 million dollars a year (and even that is probably way more than what it actually costs).

[chionos]

SE seems to think FFXI will be around for a good long while yet considering the plans they've announced over the last few months. The player base is still pretty much as active as ever, even if its a smaller community. A year ago I wouldn't have imagined SE ever putting out another true expansion(like cop, toau, etc) but I think now there's at least an offhand chance of it happening. I suspect there's quite a bit of semi-developed content that SE never finished but could easily complete if there was a good financial reason to do so, which isn't unlikely at all given the current ongoing interest.

[Citizen Bleys]

I just came back to FFXI today. It's good to be home.

I know, a lot of you will think "but will you stay once the nostalgia rush wears off?" Well, I played for 4 years, and it's been 3 since I quit (not counting one brief fling in early '09 that didn't last long; Then I didn't really miss Vana'diel all that much, and had never deactivated my account, so came back as soon as the mood took me; now I've been missing the game for several weeks and didn't act on it 'cause I didn't want to spend money)

A lot has changed; Alexander is gone, I had to rename my character, and I know absolutely nobody...but I find myself comfortable in Vana'diel still, and I have an urge to hop on a 75 job and just wander throughout the land, remembering. It's not like when I quit WoW for a while and when I got back I didn't know my way around towns.

[Rostum]

I kind of feel like coming back too, but... I don't know.

[Del Murder]

If it wasn't for that damn $35 charge I'd say let's all come back to the same server and run amok for a month.

[chionos]

$35 charge? Oh for world-transfer? Is that how much it is now? It used to be $20. 35 is straight crazy.

[Del Murder]

Is it $20? I don't really remember. Ome knows.

[chionos]

$20 is still just a silly amount to have to pay.

Just realized you're on my server now Bleys. Welcome to Shiva ^_^
If you need any help re-acclimating send me a /tell.

[Mirage]

I thought it was 25.

[Del Murder]

30? Do I hear 30?

[chionos]

lol

oh and mirage was right
FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site

[Del Murder]

$25 is still too much for such a feature. I'd pay 5 bucks max.

[chionos]

$25 is still too much for such a feature. I'd pay 5 bucks max.

And this is why FFXI will never end. Someone somewhere is willing to pay $25. People just throw money at SE, so I don't know who's more at fault, SE or the people who perpetuate their somewhat overindulgent business practices.

[Mirage]

Oh please, it is roughly the same fee as many other MMOs use.

The fee is high to stop people from constantly swapping worlds in order to buy items cheap on one world, and selling them for more on a different world.

[Del Murder]

A 'cooldown' period where you can't switch servers for some amount of time would take care of that. I doubt people would swap worlds so that they can buy something cheap and then sell it on their world a year later.