[Game website] According to an interview at Penny Arcade with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn‘s director, Naoki Yoshida, continued his defense of the monthly payment model being brought back for the game, despite the current market dominated by Free-to-Play titles.
As noted in the interview, he said that “With the free-to-play model, you’ll get huge income one month, but the next month it depletes” and “The subscription model was unrelated to the success of the game.” It certainly seems he is very confident of players forking out for the game.
I do have my worries about the business model, since it is an absolute entry barrier these days given the competition in the online gaming market. While I will no doubt get my copy with a month’s worth of gameplay, hopefully the decision to remain P2P will not return and bite Square Enix down the road. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is currently in the Closed Beta phase (PC), with players all under NDA.
