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

Signing this as I was gifted the game via Steam so have to buy things through it already. Then go and add another signature for my daughter, too, for the same reasons. I don't mind using Steam to make the purchases really, but I don't want to have to go through their servers to get into this game. That just seems like it's asking for trouble.

Signed. Let me off of the steam version or stop punishing me for having bought the game through steam, please.

Needs an emancipation from this fresh hell.

I agree with this. The ability to play via Steam is nice, but all it has ever been is just an absolute hassle. Being forced to Steam for the rest of your service account's future is very hindering. I don't like being totally locked into one platform. SE, please implement a way to convert our Steam copies for a regular, non-steam copy.

This change is honestly ridiculous, if it was required by steam then they would have had to do it years ago rather than now. I bought the game back in 2.4 when I knew nothing about the game on steam and no one knew that any of this horrible steam locking stuff would happen. I have literally never opening the game up on steam and now will be forced to go through steam everytime for no reason.

This honestly just seems like square disrespecting their steam customers yet again after the few months pre order difference in Heavensward and the shorter but still there pre order difference in Stormblood.

Also signing this. I can live with a Steam version of the game instead of direct SE Store version but I wouldn't want to launch Steam every time I start the game.

Signed. I never thought buying a game on sale would lock me into steam, let alone the launcher...

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Originally Posted by TaslinWiloh

Signed. I never thought buying a game on sale would lock me into steam, let alone the launcher...

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I'm not calling you out personally, but I dont understand how so many people made this same mistake and thought buying the game through Steam meant having to use Steam.

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Originally Posted by Nora_of_Mira

I'm not calling you out personally, but I dont understand how so many people made this same mistake and thought buying the game through Steam meant having to use Steam.

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Because back in ARR all MMOs on Steam worked in such a way that you didn't need to run Steam to use them. In fact until HW was released for pre order it wasn't even known that people who bought ARR on Steam would be locked into buying HW on Steam. They literally sent an email out two weeks after pre-orders went live for HW to say oh if you are a Steam user you need to wait for pre order on Steam, which didn't start for another couple of months.

ESO was the first MMO I know of to use this new system of Steam forcing the connection via their own servers. And it still is a complete disaster some 18+ months on, Steam ESO players can go days and weeks being completely unable to log into the game. This isn't just about having to hit play in the Steam browser to make the game work, it comes with additional overhead that essentially boils down to any Steam disruption means a dc for you if you are in game - with a healthy chance you might not be able to log on again for a hour or two or even days. This isn't hyperbole, this is actually happening in ESO. A two day downtime for Steam users only was fixed earlier this morning my time. Many MMOs no longer have Steam listings because they don't want to follow Steam's rules.

I don't use steam anymore but for those who do, signed.

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Originally Posted by Lozza

Because back in ARR all MMOs on Steam worked in such a way that you didn't need to run Steam to use them. In fact until HW was released for pre order it wasn't even known that people who bought ARR on Steam would be locked into buying HW on Steam. They literally sent an email out two weeks after pre-orders went live for HW to say oh if you are a Steam user you need to wait for pre order on Steam, which didn't start for another couple of months.

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I do vaguely remember this because right before HW started, I was forced into making a new service account (former service account was shut down because I used the steam refund policy. dont do that.) I must've made both accounts in steam to even use the steam refund policy, but I do remember specifically them telling me that I had to purchase the steam HW expansion in order to play HW. I never really felt locked in or imprisoned, I LIKE Steam and what it does. Though I can't say I've experienced the Auth Servers as I never played another Steam MMO longer than a day or 2. they never kept my attention...I hope this downtime is not as bad as it sounds.

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Originally Posted by szalkerous

Square Enix apparently has no knowledge of how poor the Steam client is.

The majority of your users avoid the client because of this.

By making the change announced today, you are sentencing your entire userbase of gamers who are forced to remain on Steam into a nightmare of performance problems and issues. The Steam overlay built into the client alone has caused massive issues with many users.

As a result of this change, I hereby demand we be given a one-time ability to trade in our Steam keys for Square Enix direct Windows platform keys on our accounts.

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Good luck with this. You made the decision to buy from a third party platform.... they owe you nothing.

Double post

I've never had a problem with the steam client playing with ESO, but I do hate that the games are solely through the client. I have always bought FF either retail or directly.

Holy cow, I'm glad I actually have the standard version despite launching from steam. I guess I might have to re-download the game again.

I disagree with this change, but if its to keep the game on steam, i can understand why they are doing it. But please, give us the option to move our steam only pc accounts to normal pc, i think most of us that are signing this wont mind loosing out on using the steam wallet for payments. At least give us the option please.

I suspect that the new policy is a requirement from Valve (after all, they did it with ESO). As for conversion -- it may not be possible due to contracts with Valve for distribution. I wish you all well in this.

I was gifted this game through Steam in ARR to try out, I loved it, so I stayed. I've never used the steam client log in except when I found out that I cannot use anything else to buy expansions, which by that time, I had an established character and didn't want to give that up and start all over. I had no choice about it though, if I wanted to save my character and the time I spent. Now if my options are using a Steam client to log on, effectively relying on Steam servers AND Square too, if there are problems, I'm not investing more time in this game. I already did not like going through Steam to buy expansions. If I have to fight with it, then I guess I'll be done this time. (say what you want, drop in the bucket, no one cares, leave then..every expansion I have to fight with this game, I won't do it everyday to log in and HOPE that I can actually play)

Chipping in to generally agree with the proposal.

Having originally bought ARR for my friends on steam due to a special, I've always felt a bit cheated. If I knew SE would completely lock your account to Steam for life I would've avoided it at all costs.
Since they're doubling down on this difference I can only assume the downsides will only increase from here on.

If they offered a one-time account conversion my friends would use it immediately, paid or otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Novak_04

Good luck with this. You made the decision to buy from a third party platform.... they owe you nothing.

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Also nonsense like this helps no-one. You can buy an FFXIV from multiple third party vendors, but only Steam will get you burned. Stop licking the boot.

steam version is awful for so many reasons and i regret having it

id pay for a conversion if i can

This is most unfortunate for those who purchased through Steam. I was going to do the same but read on the forums that once purchased you had to buy all expansions also through Steam and so I decided not to do that as it meant I could not shop around for the best deal.

I'm pretty sure nothing is going to change with regards to this though as it is all down to contracts. Ideally SE should permit people to register a non-steam PC version but I bet Steam made sure that was forbidden in the contract.

I'm not really sure how this will affect me overall, but I've had a lot of problems with Steam and Steam products over the years, and had I known back in 2014 that buying a key from them because the DD version was on sale would bind me to them for eternity, I never would have done that. I didn't have a lot of experience with Steam back then though and didn't think any differently of it than buying expansion boxes through Best Buy or Amazon for WoW. I still have Steam, but basically don't do business with them, just play games I already own (and rarely at that). With or without this change, I'd like to be able to just have a normal SE account that isn't locked to Steam (and charging me money for that really isn't appropriate), but if this change proves sufficiently inconvenient or detrimental to my gameplay experience, you may just lose my business entirely.

Signed. Having heard of Steam's auth problems with other MMOs I would like the option to migrate my account to a non-Steam version before problems that will arise from Valves lackluster support do.

Also as a multi-platform user I don't think Valve can force you to pay exclusively through Steam anymore than Sony can.

Signed for I was unaware that I was locked into Steam until after some months playing the game. I would gladly pay a conversion fee to swap to the standalone version.

Signed. Just give us the option to purchase a PC key and apply it. I can’t quite fathom why this hasn’t always been an option.

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Originally Posted by Novak_04

Good luck with this. You made the decision to buy from a third party platform.... they owe you nothing.

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Is it fun to be so edgy, and wrong?

When we purchased through steam it was no different than any other vendor. You bought it and launched it directly from SEs client, no different than if you had bought the game from Target or Walmart or Best Buy or wherever. This will no longer be the case.

/signed

Heck, I recently tried to see if this was an option when trying to get my pre-order for ShB done because this is something that should be supported anyway. Irregardless of if Steam is deciding to be more invasive.

Given that the issues with having separate PC (Steam) and PC accounts stems from merely issues with STEAM in regards to Expansion purchases, this should be technically possible.

SE, let us cut out the middleman and use our accounts and purchase our expansions directly from YOU. As a one-time offer, let us swap over from PC (Steam) to PC with our accounts!

Signed! I registered the steam code before I knew how awful this game is on steam, and now I'm stuck with it.

Signed. I haven't used Steam to launch FFXIV in years and I'm not about to start. I will absolutely unsub before I am forced into using that resource hog.

Would love to be able to convert to a normal account, having to launch the game through Steam will just add an unnecessary waste of time as i don't even have it running most of the time.

Signed. There is already enough said.

Signed too.

Sometimes I put the game in a external drive and bring with me to play in my friend's pc. Now I will have to login in his steam too. That is terrible. (and I have seen some issues with steam trying to reinstall the game).

Signed. I didn't buy the game via steam and i hardly ever touch steam in general, but it sounds like this is a big enough deal to warrant change for a lot of people.

My worry though is that this may be something on Valve's end that SE has little control over.

Signed, although we all know they won't do it and it'd cause one heck of a problem with those of us who already preordered Shadowbringers as that'll be a Steam only key.

I've just finished a webchat with SE to ask how it would work if I have one service account that isn't Steam and another service account that is Steam, both on the same Square Enix account/login (since you don't select the service account on the launcher, it's selected via the Data Center menu in game). They didn't know the answer.

They've escalated it and will come back to me at a later date via email. I feel sorry for their support people that they weren't given information about how this will work before news of it was released on the website.

We have no idea what the arrangement is with Steam, but surely this should only be applying to new service accounts going forward?

Consider this signed by me as well. I didn't personally do enough research when I first picked up the game on Steam after switching to PC from PS4 after ARR. If I had known all the BS that was going to happen I never would have picked the Steam version.

EDIT: And the only reason I've stuck by the Steam version is because I literally can't rebuy a non-Steam key and apply it to my account. No if I want to play the non-Steam version I would have to completely abandon my character I've been playing since 2014, create a new service account, and apply a non-Steam key there. Please let us at least purchase and apply non-Steam keys to our already existing accounts.

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Originally Posted by KikiKang

Dears! Please help me! I am so desperate now~T T
My FF14 account is steam version.
When I first heard of this game, I have no idea what the difference between those versions.
And a friend of mine, help me set up all the account details.
I was able to play the game since then.
Afterwards I noticed my account is steam version, even though I don't have a steam account:(
Now because of my relocation, I can't reach to that friend.. He just doesn't reply to my messages.
If I don't have access to the steam account which he originally bought the game for me, it means I am fxxked, don't I?...
Every time I think of I will never play my current account after late March, I want to jump out of the window. OTZ (ಥ_ಥ)

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If your friend installed the game on your computer using his steam account then you are screwed after march sadly. He should have set you up your own steam account to download the game and not used his own. The other problem is that even if you had his account info, two computers sharing a steam account cant run a game from that account at the same time. Also even though I dont use steam to play FF14 ..SIGNED!! :D

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Originally Posted by szalkerous

you are sentencing your entire userbase of gamers who are forced to remain on Steam into a nightmare of performance problems and issues. The Steam overlay built into the client alone has caused massive issues with many users.

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I've never experienced any problems ever. Also you can disable the Steam overlay if it's causing you problems.

Steam Settings > In-Game > Uncheck "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game"

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Originally Posted by Nora_of_Mira

I'm not calling you out personally, but I dont understand how so many people made this same mistake and thought buying the game through Steam meant having to use Steam.

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To answer you, it was a gift from my husband. He bought us both copies on sale through steam. Like Lozza said, games on steam weren't oddly bound like that previously, why would we even suspect that steam would be treated as an entirely separate platform? Windows is windows is windows, steam is not a platform. If I would have known, I would have started over well before heavensward.

This is the first time that I feel bad for having the Steam version, this change is terrible. Specially if you use VPN services like Pingzapper or similar, you will need two extra programs open now to play FFXIV and will probably have issues with it. If that's Steam decision then eh... bad luck, I guess. If it's from SE though, it makes no sense at all.

If i had known that i would be held hostage by steam i would never have bought FFXIV there. At least give us the opportunity to buy a "normal" Pc Version.