Did you really read my post and thought "this person doesn't realize this is by design"? Really??? Come on, dude...
You never know on the internet so it was a clarification just in case.
It's a 20 year old game; it doesn't need a subscription fee anymore, especially when SE's cash cow is now XIV. XIV can easily subsidize XI, but greed always wins out in the end ('Why give up an additional revenue stream if people are still dumb dedicated enough to pay monthly for a 20 year old game?'). It's pretty funny how you defend one greedy business practice by comparing it to another, though.
1) The amount of content you get for the fee is overwhelming so yes it deserves every pinny in my opinion. The age of the game does not make any of the content within any less valuable.
2) Without FFXI then we would never have FFXIV because FFXI money payed for both FFXIV v1 that failed AND FFXIV ARR devlopment so to correct you FFXI subsidized FFXIV existence and blunders and kept it alive in it's darkest times.
3) Not a single pinny of FFXIV ever was used or spend on FFXI period, in fact only pinnies of current FFXI revenue is used for FFXI while the rest of it go to SE other projects yes including FFXIV to date.
4) FFXI servers and the handful of employees that maintain it and release it's updates cost money so I'm not delusional to think asking a company to the game to the players for free to ever happen.
5) Whatever FFXIV make is invested elsewhere.
6) FFXI actually objectively give content that is worth the fee unlike microtransations and lootboxes, one of them is not greedy.
Should I get the Xbox 360 version?
It doesn't work anymore. So get the PC versions it's very cheap.
I would love an offline, singleplayer remake so I can experience the story in full. I really don't want to see a sequel, unless it isn't an MMO. We already have FFXIV and I don't want to see Square try to compete with themselves. They have a great thing going with XIV.
You might not believe me but the battles experience in this MMORPG with real players cannot be replicated offline. The AI trust system they implemented is a massive downgrade to the experience but it is there now so I guess maybe an offline version can be made and if they do I hope you enjoy it.
As for a sequel, if done right then why not? Believe me old school FFXI and FFXIV is two distinct markets, they are not the same and I think SE would win a lot of the players they lost during 2009-2010 blunders.
How can it be a greedy business if FFXI has ZERO microtransactions at all? How do you think Square enix could monetize this game if they remove the subscription? It doesn't even have a cash shop.
Would you say the same of WoW since it came out only 2 years after FFXI? it's fucking old too.
The fact that it's 20 years old is not an excuse to remove the sub if people still enjoy playing it.
FFXIV can't replace FFXI, they are two totally different games that play differently, that's why FFXI got a loyal fanbase which will never leave the game, until SE decides to shut down the servers, they despise FFXIV.
It cost money for the upkeep and sometimes people feel they can get that charge free out of a company. We would love it but companies will not do it for free and instead will ruin the game for other methods of making it pay for itself preferably with profit this is why we rather a flat fee than those other methods.
Doesn't work anymore
They shut down the ability for consoles to play the game, and no longer support it. Which bummed me out, because I primarily played it on consoles.
I'd like to correct you that it is the other way around, SE was willing to keep the game running on consoles but Sony/MS shutting down their online connectivity for those consoles killed that option for SE. SE offered a free digital PC for every console owner to compensate them.
