Here's the link to the big interview from last June: http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/17/final-fantasy-online-director-defends-monthly-subscriptions-in-the-golden-age-of-free-to-play-exclusive/
In this interview, he covers pretty much the same ground he covers in this newest interview. This includes talking about games that launched as P2P, but then had to switch to F2P in order to stay alive.
Before going too far though, he says this:
Quote:
Again, we’re not saying that one is better than the other, that free-to-play is better than subscription or subscription is better than free-to-play.
He later talks about SWTOR, and how even though it's F2P, people don't really play it... I know Lucas would have big issues with this, but I don't think he's speaking literally about the number of player accounts... I believe he's talking about regular, daily logins, like the kind of stable playerbase games like FFXI enjoyed for so many years. It's that kind of playerbase (in my opinion) that makes MMO worlds come alive. That seems to be what Yoshi-P sees as the biggest positive in making ARR a P2P game... going for more of a stable playerbase rather than a larger, less-predictable playerbase.
However, nearly a year ago, he made it clear he's not against F2P.
Edited, Mar 20th 2014 7:19pm by Thayos