When Final Fantasy XIV launched, the initial reception to the game was so bad, Square Enix extended the free trial that came with the game indefinitely. While the company definitely wants to collect subscription fees for the game, when they will do so is still up in the air.
“It was pretty much personally because I’ve been a player for so long, I wanted to make sure that I would only ask the player to pay for something [once the team had established a firm plan for improvements],” said director Naoki Yoshida. “The reason we’re doing this is we’re showing the players, yes, it’s still costing us a lot of money, and we’re not getting that money back yet, but we’re serious about making these changes. This is one of the ways that we can show players that we are serious and we are taking it seriously.”
Source: Gamasutra