FFXIV Monthly fee cheaper than FFXI ?! [+ The reduced price for playing FFXI + FFXIV]

The original announcement about the discount on FFXI for players of both FFXI and FFXIV was worded and laid out somewhat poorly. It made me think that the discount would be available indefinitely for anyone that got it started by the end of January 2011.

However, in November 2010, they announced an extension to the discount period to March 2011 (two months later) because at the time, FFXIV free trial play had been extended by about two months. That extension announcement made it much more clear that the entire discount program would end at the end of March 2011. It was not the end of signing up for it, it was the end of all of it. Even if they had gone ahead at that time and started charging subscription fees for FFXIV, the discount to FFXI would have never been more than 3 months.

Of course, since that time, FFXIV has been free trial play all the way, and no one has ever gotten the FFXI discount at all. That free trial play is only just ending this week. The original announcement has been greatly revised and made much more clear that no one will get more than three months of discounted play on a single FFXI account. They had to revise it some because of their transfer of FFXI Billing to the SE account management system which has made it such that FFXI doesn't bill on a calendar month basis any more except for the hold outs that haven't transferred yet pending the final billing option they have promissed for recurring direct credit card billing.

I would also tend to guess that accounts that have not transfered yet will likely not be eligible for the discount in January. Since I pretty much expect that final billing option will show up within the next few days, such untransferred accounts will likely be forced to transfer or the account will be cancelled at the end of January. But since they have set up four check dates, those accounts can still get the three discounts provided they meet all the other requirements. They just need to complete the transfer before the February check date (February 12).