Personally, I think FFIV won't make much revenue unless it's a multi-platform release and/or gets a standalone single-player game at some point. One reason for FFXI's less than stellar performance was quite a few FF diehards were unwilling to make such a huge financial commitment to a subscription-based MMO.

That's more than likely changed up a bit since the game launched, but I'm hoping enough market research was done among the FF fanbase or this new game will sink like a stone as well. Of course, if Bioware gets their Star Wars MMO somewhat done by the time FF XIV ships, it's pretty much a done deal.

Yes, the overall worldwide user base was respectable, but frankly speaking, I had more fun with both Phantasy Star Online games on the Dreamcast and later, GameCube. Let's not even talk about the Xbox version, crippled by the stupid requirement to ABSOLUTELY have an Xbox Live account and a credit card just to play the offline mode (which equaled the game's sad death at retail).

Anyway, It's actually a losing proposition for ANY type of MMO to stay on one console simply because not every user wants to play this style of game (unless it's absolutely free). Granted, Blizzard could probably do a custom version of WoW for the 360 or PS3 and prove me totally wrong, but they haven't (hell, even the non MMO Diablo II was never ported despite what would have been a mega-hit across the board as a console release).

You'll often hear the suits at game companies warble on about there being some "confusion" among gamers if we end up using a keyboard/mouse to play certain types of games. However, the whole PC to console "confusion" issue is pure nonsense, given that there are USB keyboards and mice for the 360 and PS3 (and 360 pads work on PC's). Hell, I can remember playing Red Faction 2 on the PS2 with a keyboard and mouse (one of a number of console titles that supported this style of gameplay).

Square are money whores shocker.