Hints of Micro-Transactions in FFXIV?

While it’s still too early to tell, but according to a interview with by Develop, SE president Yoichi Wada has hinted that FFXIV will have some form of micro-transaction system in place.

“The basic model hasn’t changed,” he said. “It’s a monthly flat rate service with additional charges for items that users want to buy.”

“For FFXI we didn’t initially set up the item transaction model that well – although the demand for it was high. We thought that it would be a benefit for users, but that we wouldn’t be able to charge.”

“We soon learnt that there are a lot of people who want that kind of model, so we would like to introduce more pay-as-you-use items into the game. But there were too few items in FFXI – however we don’t want to take it to the other extreme entirely for FFXIV.”

While we at this point don’t know if or how such a system will be implemented. I sincerely hope that SE will reconsider this course of action. Especially in light of SE wishing FFXIV to become a legitimate competitor to the major MMO’s out today, including World of Warcraft.