This just goes to show that it doesn't take much to develop a quality JRPG on a portable and a non-portable.

Well, I just requested the Mods to lock mine.

100M a year? what? theres roughly 20~50k people playing XI, if not less. 20k people at 12.95$ (one mule) is $259k, and 50k players at 12.95$ is $647k. Not to mention the server and dev costs for their constant expansions and updates...wtf are you talking about lol

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/281148/page/1

And that's only 2009.

Are you insane? 20k-50k in 2009? LOL

Final Fantasy XI made $117 Million in 2009 alone. Do some research people.

20k-50k people play XIV, but WAYYYY more play XI

I find that extremely, extremely, extremely hard to believe based off of what I said..I mean, where the f*ck does the rest of the money come from?!

Not sure where your getting your subscriber numbers because they are WRONG. However SE gets a lot of $$ off of XI from sub fees, alts, add-ons, tokens, and even more.

I don't know about 2009, but from what I recall, they recently cut down and combined the servers from 30 to 15 due to so many servers with >2k people on them. When I signed back on for a bit this summer (I've played the game since ps2 release, march 04), on the bismarck server, there was 2-3k people playing, on average, never changing. And from friends playing on different servers, it was roughly the same #, on average. So even so, 2-3k people, 15 servers, thats 30-45k unique accounts. I'm just saying what I've seen from experience. 

Edit: Add ons are only 10$ per expansion, yeah there are a ton of them, but whose to say that every single player buys every single expansion? 

I'm speaking out of my ass with no sources; if there are sources to back up how in the world they could possibly make 100m, please show me lol, I'm deathly interested 

You have to remember that just because there are 2k on average there could be loads more on the server. Just because people aren't on doesn't mean they don't have the subs. Also this is a WW server game. People are asleep while others are awake. This is the most popular MMO in Japan btw so most of the subs come from them.

This is what I heard last from SE in 2009:

Vana'dielian Population Tops Two Million! (04/22/2009)

It is our distinct pleasure to announce that during the third week of April, the total number of active characters across all worlds in FINAL FANTASY XI has exceeded the two million mark for the first time!
Since the commencement of service on May 16th, 2002, Vana'diel has gone on to become a vibrant gathering place for adventurers hailing from all corners of the globe. Boasting four expansions and one add-on scenario with two more in the pipes, FINAL FANTASY XI continues to evolve into an ever richer realm of magic and adventure.

We would like to thank you, our fans, for your loyal patronage over the years, and look forward to your continued support for many more to come.

Announcing the First Community Team Podcast Tour!
 (04/20/2009)

FINAL FANTASY XI community podcast sites have been informing and entertaining players for years. With new sites joining the audible medium and releasing new episodes each week, the Square Enix Community Team is looking to take advantage of this opportunity and appear as guests in their own Podcast Tour! Catch each exciting appearance as they air on Pet Food Alpha, He Says She Says, and Limit Break Radio throughout the months of April and May. Players may even have a chance to participate in an episode and win spectacular prizes!

Alright well, 2 million active characters =/= 2 million active accounts lol, considering you can have up to 16 chars on one account (iirc)? Not to mention the # of RMTs lol. 

Even so, its interesting, simply because XI in its current state >>>>> XIV. I stopped playing XIV, and refuse to play until the game has a purpose besides crafting. XI right now, with all the abyssea updates seems as if its learning a lot from WoW: shorter linkshell events, easier in difficulty, and more rewarding, which all in all makes it a lot more fun. (On record, I hate WoW. But every MMO is going to be influenced by WoW in one way or another in order to attempt to challenge it/be successful).