They spent so much money on this damned thing though, it's maddening even.

Yeah I just remoted to my PC and ran the updated benchmark, like the notes said, no Crossfire or SLI support yet since I'm getting negative returns lol, single card is still 5400~ and full screen 2 cards are getting me about uh, 4200? lol

no, I plan to play this with my friends once it a realm reborn releases :)

It will live through the franchise fans
Without the Final Fantasy in the title it would bomb hard but so it will make money no matter the quality.
As long as you don't see it as a competitive MMORPG(World 1st Raiding) and as a WoW Killer(hopefully SquareEnix doesn't use the term anytime) nearly no one outside of the Final Fantasy fanbase will care and it will live a long time probably.
Will surely be an interesting time waste where you just shut down and don't care for anything.

If Square Enix decided to abandon FFXIV, then you can kiss future Final Fantasy games goodbye. At least for a long while.  The way how I see it, they're recreating the game to fix their mistake, and to regain players trust. I think that is why even the FFXIII Versus crew is also working on it, along with a workforce of over 255.

So, don't get mad. They're doing it for the fans, and for the promise they made with Sony. If you want to see the progress they've made so far then check out my thread in my sig. I've updated it with pictures of Magitek armor. :)

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Exploration)
Tested on:16/03/2013 04:33:30
Score:7942
Average Framerate:66.346
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

Screen Size: 1920x1080
Screen Mode: Full Screen
Graphics Presets: Custom
General
-Improve overall graphic quality. : Enabled
-Disable rendering of objects when not visible. (Occlusion Culling) : Disabled
-Use low-detail models on distant objects to increase performance. (LOD) : Disabled
-Cache LOD data only when necessary. (LOD Streaming) : Disabled
-Smooth edges. (Anti-aliasing) : Enabled
-Increase transparent lighting quality. : Enabled
-Grass Quality : High
Shadows
-Use low-detail models on shadows to increase performance. (LOD) : Disabled
-Display : All
-Shadow Resolution : High: 2048 pixels
-Shadow Cascading : High
-Shadow Softening : High
Texture Detail
-Texture Filtering : High
-Anisotropic Filtering : High
Effects
-Naturally darken the edges of the screen. (Limb Darkening) : Enabled
-Blur the graphics around an object in motion. (Radial Blur) : Enabled
-Effects While in Motion : Display All
-Screen Space Ambient Occlusion : High
-Glare : Normal
Cinematic Cutscenes
-Enable depth of field. : Enabled

System:
Windows 8 Pro 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200) (9200.win8_gdr.121119-1606)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
16301.113MB
AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series(VRAM 4095 MB) 8.17.0010.1191

CPU was OC'd to 4.2GHz and GPU 1050/1500

Also 2 years later and it's still one of, if not the prettiest MMO on the market despite its flaws. Though there are some gorgeous ones coming out soon. I specifically picked up a copy of 14 for 5 bucks just to get into this beta, but now that it's started I have no idea how to get in.

I am not so sure it will, Beta participation is extremely high compared to what they thought it would be in the roadmap. While it's true that it will never achieve probably anything 2m+. It will have always been a niche MMO, and without investors breathing on their neck for F2P they can recoup losses if the game works out. 400k subs even is a success if they can maintain that for many years.

Guys....I understand that Square may be trying to make it up to the fans and what not, but seriously they dropped WAY too much cash on this game and it's not even released yet.

ugh, i wish it had no sub fee, same goes for DQX. and sure it wont be amazing but it should at least be a steady flow of cash for awhile