I think the phrase "you can't polish a turd" may well apply to FFXIV.

I'm not convinced sending in a relief team to clean up all the mistakes will save the game any more than I'm convinced that even if it were possible, that the negative PR already attached to this title from both critical and user feedback can be overlooked or forgotten.

It is a poor reflection on a major developer when they allow such an important product to go on for as long as it did in the development pipeline without anyone noticing any of the blaring missteps that were uncovered the day the game was released. Or maybe they just didn't care. Either way, you just can't expect people to pay for something like that and you definitely can't expect them to keep subscribing to it.

Wow this is a very good move. I've never seen such a big company act this humble and make such changes. But I've also never seen such a big company release a horrible game for their best series. 

I feel sorry for Tanaka, is he fired? I think he was the last remaining FF1 (yes the first Final Fantasy) member at the company

I'm thinking it was released because the development team assured the SE highups it was actually good and it could be fixed.  I'm guessing they high ups never played it and it was only shown to them during massive dog and pony shows to cover up how massively bad it was.

If SE had actually known how bad the game is and it wasn't complete I'm positive they would have not released it.  It costs a lot of money to delay a game, but it costs a lot more money to release an MMO and maintain it for free like they're doing now.  I expect to see a statement every month until the PS3 release is close saying they extended the free trail period again because they know nobody will pay a monthly fee for that.

‎"No doubt there are very few, if any, among you who have ever heard the name Naoki Yoshida. " 
lol'd. 
"First of all, I would like to apologize for our inability to fully satisfy our users with the initial release of FINAL FANTASY XIV."
Apologizing won't help. 

AND, the ps3 release gets pushed back. I'm never playing this game. It's definitely going to be cancelled by the summer.

But that's not even a corporate call. It still falls back on the head of R&D to make the appropriate corrections keep the ship moving straight if a project starts off in the wrong direction. Given the results, one has to ask if they really thought they had a hit product on their hands, only to be shocked at the critical and commercial response.

It'll be really interesting to see if the PS3 release has any impact at all as word of mouth is already well established.

And of course, as with any MMO, it's not even an issue of convincing consumers to drop $60 on the game; the real job is convincing them to keep subscribing. If not, there's no point in releasing an MMO to begin with.

I won't be surprised if they keep a "please bear with us and continue playing for free until we fix this game" approach, but eventually either it's fixed and people will pay their subscription because it's worthwhile, or it's done.

Seems like they had a choice. Keep the game the same and watch their user base dwindle to nothing or make changes.

It's not generous or being humble, it's a cold, calculated business decision.