PETITION: Regarding FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam Version (Mar. 8)

Hm. I find the baseless, alarmist fear-mongering here a little worrying.

You should absolutely be able to separate the game from Steam if you wish. Having that option is always good.

But Steam's maintenance or other server issues will have absolutely zero impact on your FFXIV experience. The game will not be requiring any sort of authentication through Steam, as FFXIV doesn't and won't (as it would be ridiculously complex and serve no purpose) require you to authenticate through the Steam API or network infrastructure for any reason.

Literally the only thing changing is you'll have to have Steam open. It won't even have to be online, you won't need the overlay, etc.

It's okay to not want to do that, and to petition them to change it, but don't wholesale make things up or fearmonger about stuff that would literally never happen because you don't understand the platform. Ask questions before getting outraged, to make sure you're actually getting outraged about something that you care about.

My main concern is that Square Enix is either knowingly lying about this, or is making a change based on something they don't understand. There's the possibility of some third factor I'm unaware of (maybe people are able to take advantage of redeeming it via Steam and then somehow using it to amass lots of accounts or something? Maybe for RMT?) but they're super vague, and no other game is doing this. It is absolutely not Steam's policy for you to have Steam open to run games. The service actually has a lot of games that don't even require Steam installed, let alone open.

It sucks and SE rly gotta give a solution...

...but i very well knew why i've refused to use some DRM BS on my PC ever since, even if they try to lure you with their sales.

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Originally Posted by Xbob42

baseless, alarmist fear-mongering

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Except it isn't baseless. If it was baseless there wouldn't be discussion on steam, this forum, reddit, etc about the subject.

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Originally Posted by Xbob42

But Steam's maintenance or other server issues will have absolutely zero impact on your FFXIV experience. The game will not be requiring any sort of authentication through Steam, as FFXIV doesn't and won't (as it would be ridiculously complex and serve no purpose) require you to authenticate through the Steam API or network infrastructure for any reason.

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Yes it will and that is exactly what Square Enix wrote:

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Originally Posted by Square Enix

In order to align closely with Steam policies, we plan to implement a restricted login check process for Steam service account users.

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That is literally authentication through the Steam API and network infrastructure. So when Steam authentication servers are down you cannot start the game client, because it can't authenticate in the Steam API, when you try to start the game.

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Originally Posted by Xbob42

Literally the only thing changing is you'll have to have Steam open. It won't even have to be online, you won't need the overlay, etc.

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That is completely false. They explicitly wrote, that you have to start the game via a restricted login check in Steam.

Dear Square Enix,

Please let us the choice to play Final Fantasy XIV without having to connect to Steam ! I've always had struggles to play this game properly with Steam on and I still regret I bought it through Steam. I love this game and want to go on playing it without experiencing problems !

Thanks a lot !

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Originally Posted by Maneesha

I'll address the people who are coming here and telling us that this is our own fault for having the steam version.Are you trying to tell us we are not allowed to express our concerns and make SE aware that we might have issues in the future because of issues in the past, or still present, concerning the steam client and other mmo's?

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You're allowed to express your concern, but at the correct entity. S-E, in all likelihood, is contractually obligated to adhere to Steam's policies. No amount of petitioning is going to convince S-E to break contractual law and rescind this decision. If this decision causes problems that many of you fear, it is Steam that you must appeal to, not S-E.


This is a Steam problem. Not an S-E problem. I really wish everyone complaining would understand this.

If this change of forced Steam login goes through, I'm just going to quit.
I have no intention of being forced through two clients just to log in, and leveling and re-doing my whole character is just not an option, not to mention the cost of all the content a second time.

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Originally Posted by Eli85

No amount of petitioning is going to convince S-E to break contractual law and rescind this decision.

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It has nothing to do with breaking contractual law, to ask them to allow us to let us change from the Steam version to the Windows version or in the worst case, at least let us delete our Steam license key in the mogstation and add a new game key from the normal Windows version

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Originally Posted by Eli85

This is a Steam problem. Not an S-E problem. I really wish everyone complaining would understand this.

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No it is not, proven by The Elder Scrolls Online, who had the same problem. There they let you add a normal Windows key to your account, so you can play the non-steam version.

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Originally Posted by Hitomi_Kitanoko

and re-doing my whole character is just not an option, not to mention the cost of all the content a second time

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If it was just this, it wouldn't be a problem for me. The problem however is, that over the course of the last 3 years I've unlocked tons of Event stuff I cannot get again, like the glowing whisper mount, several other mounts, event outfits, etc. and for me as a collector of these things, this is just too much of a sacrifice.

In other games, it is possible to create another account and have your characters moved to that account. I would be willing to rebuy the game, with all the expansions, in order to do this, so it is possible. I HAVE contacted Steam...to no avail with a canned response of "post it in the suggestions area", so if you are thinking of doing that, by all means do so but it won't get anywhere. I am not going to have a resource hog opened at all times while I'm trying to play a game. Yes, after 30 years of being a network administrator, it IS a resource hog, it IS a log on authentication server of a third party that you are depending on, as well as the authentication server at SE, two passthroughs to actually log on. I understand contractual agreements just fine thanks. I also understand work arounds if a problem develops and this is a problem. If they are not willing to do so, yes that is SE as well as Steam. Its a game not a chore..so no answer IS an answer for me. Like it or leave it...guess I'll leave it

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Originally Posted by Eli85

You're allowed to express your concern, but at the correct entity. S-E, in all likelihood, is contractually obligated to adhere to Steam's policies. No amount of petitioning is going to convince S-E to break contractual law and rescind this decision. If this decision causes problems that many of you fear, it is Steam that you must appeal to, not S-E.


This is a Steam problem. Not an S-E problem. I really wish everyone complaining would understand this.

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Square Enix is the one not giving Steam owners the option to register and play with Windows copies of the game, and are forcing us to be locked into Steam's inane nonsense. A lot of people here aren't asking to be able to launch the Steam version we already own outside of Steam, but just to be able to register a second version of the game to our account so we can choose whether or not we want to engage with Steam at all. Unless Square has the worst lawyers in the world, there's no way they signed a contract saying that Steam has a right to dictate what Square is allowed to do with the Mogstation and user accounts outside of Steam itself.

I really wish everyone who thinks this isn't a problem would stop treating everyone who has a legitimate complaint about it like they're being petulant. We've been locked into a situation we're unhappy with for a while now, and it's suddenly being made worse, and we're being offered no alternatives. Furthermore, even if this was a Steam problem, and not a Square problem, we'd still have better luck going through Square than Steam, as Steam has to filter these complaints for thousands of games each day so our pleas would fall on deaf ears, whereas we are requesting aid specifically to the people who could potentially devise a solution to this, if they actually care about the user base they might lose over these changes.