Why are there both PC and Mac licenses?

The simple truth is they're not the same product. I understand that it's frustrating that the Mac version isn't well optimised but it doesn't change the fact that it's not the same product as the PC or console versions.

When you pay for FFXIV the game you're not paying for the game as a whole, you're paying for a specific version of a client that runs that game.

Your account however is a single product that can access all versions of the game client which is why you do not need to pay separate sub fees to play on multiple platforms.

I understand that different platforms have different requirements and meeting those requirements costs time and money to develop for each platform, but it does suck that you have to pay full price if you want to have multiple clients of the game. It would be nice if you at least got a discount if you already own one version of the game client. And to prevent people from repeatedly reselling cheaper versions of the client SE could only allow the discount if it's bought through your Mog Station account so that each account could access the discount only once per version of the client.

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Originally Posted by VisperCon

You don't need to change the registry, all that you to do is download the client through crossOver, make a new Windows 10 x64 bottle, install DIRECTV X, DXVK, and then install the FF14 setup files inside of this bottle. No hacking needed at all.

Your second point kind of goes to my point.

Yes if it's a commercial release they need to ensure it works but the investment is minimal at this point. The phrase "not even test" wasn't fair but to make it a big undertaking is far from the truth. crossOver 21 hasn't been tested or even implemented by SE but shows significant gains in performance. And again, no testing done was done by SE in the process. Patches have been released and XIVLauncher has been updated to already support Endwalker on release all without testing from SE.

I am fine having some charge to support the Mac version but in no world is full retail pricing justified; especially if one already has the PC version.

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Well it's still a separate software license and if I remember right software providers actually have to use the same price across all distribution platforms which the regulation stating so probably makes no differentiation between PC and Mac in that regard. At the same time they probably cannot offer a discounted price for a mac key for people that have the pc version because it would likely cause problems with the number of people that purchased keys for PC and Playstation.

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

Well it's still a separate software license and if I remember right software providers actually have to use the same price across all distribution platforms which the regulation stating so probably makes no differentiation between PC and Mac in that regard. At the same time they probably cannot offer a discounted price for a mac key for people that have the pc version because it would likely cause problems with the number of people that purchased keys for PC and Playstation.

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Apologies, but this is 100% incorrect (in the States). This would be almost the opposite of regulation and could be considered price fixing which is extremely illegal.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

The simple truth is they're not the same product. I understand that it's frustrating that the Mac version isn't well optimised but it doesn't change the fact that it's not the same product as the PC or console versions.

When you pay for FFXIV the game you're not paying for the game as a whole, you're paying for a specific version of a client that runs that game.

Your account however is a single product that can access all versions of the game client which is why you do not need to pay separate sub fees to play on multiple platforms.

I understand that different platforms have different requirements and meeting those requirements costs time and money to develop for each platform, but it does suck that you have to pay full price if you want to have multiple clients of the game. It would be nice if you at least got a discount if you already own one version of the game client. And to prevent people from repeatedly reselling cheaper versions of the client SE could only allow the discount if it's bought through your Mog Station account so that each account could access the discount only once per version of the client.

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I guess I just have a sour taste with this because the game is not designed for MacOS much less M1 Macs; conversely if someone looks at WoW not only is the game now native for M1 processors but you only need one copy of the game and no multiple copies of multiple expansions. They both have monthly fees and in-store cosmetics but for WoW the players only need one copy, one sub, one account, and can play on multiple platforms. I probably wouldn't be so vexed if it was a better company that did this but to see ActivisionBlizzard of all companies offer this while a far superior one (IMO) forces multiple purchases for a worse experience is frustrating.

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Originally Posted by VisperCon

Apologies, but this is 100% incorrect (in the States). This would be almost the opposite of regulation and could be considered price fixing which is extremely illegal.

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It's not price fixing at all to offer the same title for the same price regardless of where it is purchased, be it the windows store, mac store, steam, gog, epic game store, etc because it is set by 1 entity which is the seller of the product he regulation governing this situation has to do with essentially not allowing the vendor to encourage their consumers towards usage of 1 specific distribution network over others.

Price fixing is a practice by multiple parties or sellers offering the same product or service in order to maintain prices of that product or service for their own mutual benefit. This would be something like 3 different banks collaborating to decide high interest rates they will set for a specific region for their loans and credit accounts in order for all 3 to make more money off the accounts opened in that region.

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Originally Posted by VisperCon

I guess I just have a sour taste with this because the game is not designed for MacOS much less M1 Macs; conversely if someone looks at WoW not only is the game now native for M1 processors but you only need one copy of the game and no multiple copies of multiple expansions. They both have monthly fees and in-store cosmetics but for WoW the players only need one copy, one sub, one account, and can play on multiple platforms.

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I completely get that and I would feel badly about it too if I were in your position. However WoW expansions cost more than FF expansions, which basically means they're essentially doing the discount that I mentioned SE should do in my previous post. FF expansions are cheaper but only cover one client. WoW expansions cost more but cover multiple clients.

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

It's not price fixing at all to offer the same title for the same price regardless of where it is purchased, be it the windows store, mac store, steam, gog, epic game store, etc because it is set by 1 entity which is the seller of the product he regulation governing this situation has to do with essentially not allowing the vendor to encourage their consumers towards usage of 1 specific distribution network over others.

Price fixing is a practice by multiple parties or sellers offering the same product or service in order to maintain prices of that product or service for their own mutual benefit. This would be something like 3 different banks collaborating to decide high interest rates they will set for a specific region for their loans and credit accounts in order for all 3 to make more money off the accounts opened in that region.

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You're going to have to point to regulation that describes your point.

SE can set whatever price they want but they cannot dictate the price the sellers sell their product. If Steam wants to lose money on XIV as an acquisition strategy to increase the player count on Steam’s version of XIV, that’s on them. That’s why it’s called a suggested retail price; they are not bound by it. It’s literally why you will see items for sale at one retailer and not another, even for software. Vendors are allowed to have deals with companies, that's also why you see "pre-order bonuses" from certain retailers with exclusive add-ons or content; content that would have a price if purchased from someone else. This is especially true if a company knows that Company-A has access to much a larger player base than Company-B so they may sweeten the pot to ensure Company-A highlights the product more than Company-B. This is completely legal.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

I completely get that and I would feel badly about it too if I were in your position. However WoW expansions cost more than FF expansions, which basically means they're essentially doing the discount that I mentioned SE should do in my previous post. FF expansions are cheaper but only cover one client. WoW expansions cost more but cover multiple clients.

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Shadowlands and Endwalker are both $40 at launch.

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Originally Posted by VisperCon

Shadowlands and Endwalker are both $40 at launch.

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My mistake or perhaps regional pricing differs depending on your location. I know that before I paid more for WoW expansions than FF expansions. But it's been many years since I bought a WoW expansion.

Whatever the case SE should at least offer a discount to those who buy additional versions of the client for the game when bought for the same account.

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Originally Posted by VisperCon

You don't need to change the registry, all that you to do is download the client through crossOver, make a new Windows 10 x64 bottle, install DIRECTV X, DXVK, and then install the FF14 setup files inside of this bottle. No hacking needed at all.

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This is still factually incorrect. You do need to change the registry if you want to use a Windows-only license service account. Please do not confuse that with having both Windows and macOS platforms on a single account.

When the official FFXIV launcher detects wine exports, it very clearly identifies itself as "FFXIV MAC VERSION" which happens to any Linux user who also doesn't hide wine.

CrossOver does not support hiding wine exports. Check their forums. Ask in their support channels. They'll tell you as much. You want FFXIV to think it's running on Windows, you have to use Wine-Staging or patch (aka hack) certain files in CrossOver to re-enable that feature.

You can test it yourself using some trial accounts. Make a new one just for macOS and you'll find it fails on Windows. Make a Windows trial account, and you'll see it can't login on macOS.

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That said, yes, validating FFXIV running in Wine should still absolutely be considered separate and different than running it natively on Windows. Just like how Square Enix had to tell PS5 users that while the PS4 copy of FFXIV would probably run fine, it wasn't tested and they should expect to see bugs until the official PS5 version (or any PS5-specific fixes for the PS4 version) was released.

I don't think it justifies being the same price as a separate platform either, but they're still likely paying money for CodeWeavers to do upkeep for them and for their QA team to go through all the same tests to ensure that wine is functioning as intended and they don't run into something that causes a fatal direct error or crashes the game. (Even though they've yet to fix the opening cutscene or title screen videos locking up the game because wine can't play those.)

It's probably because they have to support the Mac as a separate platform as well. It being the same/similar version as Windows running on Wine might not help if a Mac player contacts them and all they know is native Windows support.