50% price increase for subscription

By switching the currency I pay in from US$ to Euro, SE has increased the amount it costs me to play this game by roughly 50%.
I live in NZ, and the billing went from $20 and a few cents to $30 in NZ $.
I am strongly considering leaving.
If SE wants to SERIOUSLY piss us off and shut down the game, why don't they simply say so?
They are doing all they can.

This is in NO WAY accpetable.

It stinks of terminal arrogance, which has recently beset quite a few JP companies.
Death wish is it?

I'll be sorry to go, but if this does not get fixed, I will.

Cheers

Aphugel

It won't be fixed, in part because you're not even in an officially supported region. You should have gotten an NA account instead of an EU account.

Cya.

I think it's all kinds of messed-up that this has happened to you. I'm sorry your leaving is under these circumstances. Best of luck.

I live in Europe and I've been paying in USD up until now, I guess I will also be hit by this increase in subscription fee.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

It won't be fixed, in part because you're not even in an officially supported region. You should have gotten an NA account instead of an EU account.

Cya.

---

They didn't give me a choice.

ouch. That sucks.

Quote:

---

They didn't give me a choice.

---

How did you not have a choice? Every EU player who wanted to play before it came out in the EU simply got an NA account.

The key point here is SE didn't "raise the price." It's the price you technically should have been paying from the beginning. HOWEVER, it's not something that should really be changed after people have been used to the previous situation for years

SHouldn't people be paying for things in their own currency in general though? I thought the only people paying in USD were EU players who imported the game before it came out in the EU.

It's unfortunate, but I highly doubt it's some kind of sinister plan to make people quit.

(Don't rail on me for this- it does suck, I completely agree with that. I'm simply asking the question of why everyone got to pay with a better currency to begin with. What if the EU got the best price? We'd all be wishing we could pay in euros. )

Regardless of what should have been, SE had him as a customer and im sure they didn't care if his money "wasn't supported".

Don't get me wrong, It does suck; but it's a stretch to call it some kind of conspiracy of forcing people to quit so they can kill the game. FFXI still makes them plenty of money, they have no reason to actiively "Kill" it.

They charge u according to where ur CC is resitered. U CAN not get a "country of ur coice" account.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aphugel

They charge u according to where ur CC is resitered. U CAN not get a "country of ur coice" account.

---

That's news to me. Unless that change happened today or with the system change, billing was based on your region, not your credit card.

Billing options right now are based on your region. You absolutely could get an NA, EU, or JP (not "country of choice" account, and your billing options were based on your region. You were required to select a region/country when you created your SE account; your billing was based on that region.

Quote:

---

That's news to me. Unless that change happened today or with the system change, billing was based on your region, not your credit card.

---

Old system was always based on your card and your region. If you had an eu account, you had to pay with an eu card. If you have an NA account, you have to pay w/ an NA card, etc.

New system is click n buy, may be diff w/ how they accept your money

In NZ you didn't get a choice, they only started retailing FFXI with Zilart and CoP expansions, and the Xbox version with Zilart, CoP, and Aht Urhgan - so it's unfair to assume we had the choice to pick what region our account would be.

They obviously have some people working on making XI more profitable, saldy they are missing the most basic business practice of profitability. Don't piss off your customers.

I don't think this will be the last thing they implement to make the game more profitable either, mule prices will probably increase next. They are cutting the dev team behind the scenes and stuff too, they are going to be ripping every last cent they can out of our hands.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Don't get me wrong, It does suck; but it's a stretch to call it some kind of conspiracy of forcing people to quit so they can kill the game. FFXI still makes them plenty of money, they have no reason to actiively "Kill" it.

---

But that's exactly what they're doing. They're gonna lose an insane amount of money over this, and end up with a pissed off remaining playerbase and everyone has been telling them that from the start. There's only two possibilities, either they know that and don't care, or they don't realize what everyone else has realized. You decide which one is worse.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arcon

But that's exactly what they're doing. They're gonna lose an insane amount of money over this, and end up with a pissed off remaining playerbase and everyone has been telling them that from the start. There's only two possibilities, either they know that and don't care, or they don't realize what everyone else has realized. You decide which one is worse.

---

They are working to fix the issue according to a dev post weeks ago.

ps I'm so on your sever in ff14. Been playing that more. :)

Quote:

---

I don't think this will be the last thing they implement to make the game more profitable either, mule prices will probably increase next.

---

Give me a break.

They're not going to change the actual price of the subscription. Yes, you may have been a victim of a currency switch. The direct, actual price they set never changed, only the currencies you can pay in, and being from an unsupported region, you suffer the extra cost caused by the currency exchange rate. Next thing you'll say is they'll start charging inactivity fees to keep your data if you quit the game.

Sorry, slippery slope is a fallacy in logical argument- I only took it to the next step to show you how ridiculous it is.

I don't think the error lies in needing to pay euros. We should have been forced to do so since the beginning. The questionable part is that SE doesn't even look at the value of currency, they just slap on "We want 10 whatevers you pay in".

Wish I could pay 10 kr for this, but sadly they don't take your country's money, it is your general regions money.

Well if they want to call a game "worldwide," sadly for them the world consists of more than North America, Japan, and the EU. They really should officially support more regions than that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Malamasala

I don't think the error lies in needing to pay euros. We should have been forced to do so since the beginning. The questionable part is that SE doesn't even look at the value of currency, they just slap on "We want 10 whatevers you pay in".

Wish I could pay 10 kr for this, but sadly they don't take your country's money, it is your general regions money.

---

It's not SE's fault the USD is shit and another currency may be "more", because even if they charged $1 for FFXI a month it will still be more or less somewhere else. There's no universal currency.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cream_Soda

If you had an eu account, you had to pay with an eu card. If you have an NA account, you have to pay w/ an NA card, etc.

---

this is not correct, you paid for the game depending on what region the game was from, i have 2 accounts, 1 NA and 1 EU, I pay for the NA account in usd and my eu in sterling using the same uk credit card, so card location had nothing to do with it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Riggs

this is not correct, you paid for the game depending on what region the game was from, i have 2 accounts, 1 NA and 1 EU, I pay for the NA account in usd and my eu in sterling using the same uk credit card, so card location had nothing to do with it

---

Fair enough, my info was 2nd hand. My mistake

That payment increase stuff is old News. Main Point is SE should reconsidder treating € like $.
Regular Prices Since 2005ish are:

JP 1150 円
UK 8.29 ￡
EU 12.95 €
NA 12.95 $

Letme translate into $

JP - ~15 $
UK - ~13.5 $
EU - ~ 18,6$
NA 12,95$

Its Old News EU Players are being ripped off.
Noone cares SE doesn't comment.

Don't get me wrong i like the Game so im staying but...
WAY to get subscibers in EU your doing great SE. (Outside UK)

They should though, its kinda a way to tell pll to not buy their Products anylonger.

While it's ridiculous to think that they're actively trying to lose money, it's even more ridiculous to think that the people at the top of SE for the past 5-10 years (their poor business decisions are not limited to the recent FFXI payment change) are reasonable human beings who genuinely belong in the position they have within the company. I don't know what happened/didn't happen, but SE has really gone downhill over the years and I sure as hell wouldn't buy stock in them- I wonder who is to allow this to continue happening.

Correct me if I am wrong its not uncommon for games in Europe to generally cost more to buy then in the US.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zumi

Correct me if I am wrong its not uncommon for games in Europe to generally cost more to buy then in the US.

---

if a normal new release is 59.90$
The Eu release will be 49.90€

In Genral of course there are some games that fall our of that pattern.

Fact is Eu gets the highest Cost + the Maints in their Prime time, and no comments from SE's Side.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eri

if a normal new release is 59.90$
The Eu release will be 49.90€

In Genral of course there are some games that fall our of that pattern.

Fact is Eu gets the highest Cost + the Maints in their Prime time, and no comments from SE's Side.

---

Guess what? Japanese games have maints in their off hours (sometimes prime time) which tends to be in our general prime time for working adults/college students just coming home or early am. There's no universal time, either.

Lol Emergency maints dont matter actaully. Had mayor maintances (7h+) in Prime evening times for years starting 7pm-1~3am. SO if EU is paying more for no reason. They could move maints to w/e cuz we pay more. Or lower fees. Its overdue already.

SE arent looking to loose business here, they just worked it out that charging more would be worth more to them than the few players that would quite over it. Nothing personal its just business

Quote:

---

if a normal new release is 59.90$
The Eu release will be 49.90€

---

I don't think that's true. Maybe it's changed since I last checked, but on Steam, they charge the same amount of both Euros and Dollars. (E.g. $50 = 50 euros)

When the euro was newer, it was closer to the dollar and it made sense. That being said, they can't constantly change the price based on exchange rates- it's a huge hassle and no one likes it when prices change.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

I don't think that's true. Maybe it's changed since I last checked, but on Steam, they charge the same amount of both Euros and Dollars. (E.g. $50 = 50 euros)

When the euro was newer, it was closer to the dollar and it made sense. That being said, they can't constantly change the price based on exchange rates- it's a huge hassle and no one likes it when prices change.

---

Point is the couldn't make an EU price like they have a UK price?
Anyway. Steam is like Garbage. Go to something real like amazon you will find most releases for the same price as in NA .

The essence of you Comment is:
"I find a reason to defend SE since it doesnt Affect me."
Thats kinda sad^^;

This is obviously the wrong Place to get help from another countrys Community.
But what's more SE doesnt comment on this issue.

Quote:

---

Steam is like Garbage. Go to something real like amazon you will find most releases for the same price as in NA .

---

Um, no, steam is not garbage, steam beats the pants off any other online source for games. Yes, they aren't as friendly to non-USD folk, I suppose. But Steam has sales and discounts way more often than Amazon or any game store. During Midweek Madness or Weekend Deals you can often get a really good game for just a couple dollars (or euros or whatever)

Alhanelem are you paid by SE to defend it?
Seriously whenever I see a complaint against SE, you're in the forum with your fuggin captain america shield bashing anyone who is negatively effected by something SE does.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cursed

Alhanelem are you paid by SE to defend it?
Seriously whenever I see a complaint against SE, you're in the forum with your fuggin captain america shield bashing anyone who is negatively effected by something SE does.

---

Disregarding why he's doing, he's right this time. Steam is amazing and anyone saying otherwise has never used it or is trolling. Even for FFXI it's amazing, faster than the installation disks and with backup capabilities. Their payment scheme, as far as I can tell, is related to the actual pricing in that region. Like, if you would go into a store and buy it. And their special offers absolutely make up for the price differences in there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cursed

Alhanelem are you paid by SE to defend it?
Seriously whenever I see a complaint against SE, you're in the forum with your fuggin captain america shield bashing anyone who is negatively effected by something SE does.

---

It's easier to ignore pro-trolls. They just never quit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cursed

Alhanelem are you paid by SE to defend it?
Seriously whenever I see a complaint against SE, you're in the forum with your fuggin captain america shield bashing anyone who is negatively effected by something SE does.

---

No, I'm not. However, while many complaints are legitimate, there are also many complaints that have little basis in fact and are mostly jumping to conclusions. The problem and why I tend to leap to the defense of something, is that people believe what they see on the internet too easily, when the internet is loaded with as much crap as it is loaded with useful information.

I suppose it's a futile effort, but it's hard to ignore these kinds of complaints.

(and seriously- Steam is great. No invasive DRM, see what games your friends are playing and invite them to join, Access your games from any number of PCs, what's not to like?? Steam is also a huge supporter of indie developers.)

@Alha: My Probems with Steam (prolly other ppls too to a degree) are:

• No Box
• No Booklet
• No Disk

I want something to put on my shelf kinda so, as long as i don't get that its not a shop, just an online distributor.

Special deals are a Kids argument kinda.... did you ever wait for a game to be special deal to buy it? Probably not. Its more like you browse by see something that might be ok for you and buy it since its cheap. Not like : OMG i wanted this game so mutch but i waited for a it to be cheap.

If i want somethin, i go to the shop and buy it right away, i might look for the best deal but i don't wait for a silly special that might never happen.

Figure some ppl are in the same Opinion.

Moveing back to the Topic at hand. The silence of Comreps isn't suprising by any means. Thats what SE's Costumer-Service had been for years.

Like: We look into it.
or: Not gonna Happen.

that'd be cool. i would't expect them to be clear about it. Just to say nothing until ppl lose intrest.

Anyway there is no reson for the High EU Prices.

Quote:

---

Moveing back to the Topic at hand. The silence of Comreps isn't suprising by any means. Thats what SE's Costumer-Service had been for years.

---

Not the reps fault, they can't get the answers to give to us I guess.

Though yes it's kinda sad that Square promised closer links and to be better at listening to it's customers then when the first big thing comes up they clam up and pretty much totally ignore the ragefest. I inderstand these things take time but there should be more communication on the direction they plan to go with this rather than wait till people take action and they lose money.