Please allow Steam License holders to buy a standalone PC License.

Pretty much every other game with it's own launcher/account system on Steam just sits under that Steam account. If I buy a Ubisoft, EA or Rockstar Games title on Steam, all of which come with their own launchers, I have to launch the games through Steam. Effectively making it Steam > Origin (for example) > Game. If I go to Origin directly and try to star the game, it'll just load Steam to start the game which still checks for Origin to be running.

The fact FFXIV could just bypass that launcher/account requirement is quite bizarre and from my understanding, a violation of Valve's terms of service by Square Enix. I still take issue with the fact SE don't use Steam to distribute the entire game and instead it installs the latest launcher version before making me download the game through that. I'd like them to fully integrate the Steam version with Steam and bypass the FFXIV launcher entirely to get me straight into the game from Steam.

A launcher fix, at the very least, for Linux/SteamOS users would be great though. It's something they should be able to fix quite easily with a small patch before the Steam Deck officially releases at the end of the month.

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Originally Posted by Youkulm

Unfortunately no, not to my knowledge.



Yeah if we could transfer characters to other accounts, I'd just do that to escape steam, but I can see why SE doesn't offer this. It would make RMT even easier. Already so many people selling characters.

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Blizzard allows transfer between accounts within a region with the following stipulations:

Minor turning adult separating from a parent's account
Accounts both have identical names and billing information.

I've read the announcement probably over 50 times now, and thinking logically:

"To link accounts, the Steam account must possess a FINAL FANTASY XIV license that matches that found on the target Square Enix account/FINAL FANTASY XIV service account (e.g., the Free Trial version or the full game version). You can verify the FINAL FANTASY XIV licenses on your Steam account by clicking on your Steam display name, selecting “Account details,” then “View licenses and product key activations” found under Store & Purchase History."

It specifies trial OR full game, meaning "Final Fantasy XIV Online Free Trial" or "Final Fantasy XIV Online" in your steam library. It doesn't make any mention of expansion licenses.
Then, where it tells you to verify the licenses, it brings you to a list of games registered to your steam account (NOT your product keys, which are located in another menu).

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Originally Posted by Youkulm

I'd really like to see a community rep address all of the concerns in this thread. The lack of transparency and communication over the steam/linux* problems is unacceptable.

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This would be ideal. I don't know if they read the english forums at all but it'd put a LOT of people's mind at ease

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Originally Posted by Johners

Pretty much every other game with it's own launcher/account system on Steam just sits under that Steam account. If I buy a Ubisoft, EA or Rockstar Games title on Steam, all of which come with their own launchers, I have to launch the games through Steam. Effectively making it Steam > Origin (for example) > Game. If I go to Origin directly and try to star the game, it'll just load Steam to start the game which still checks for Origin to be running.

The fact FFXIV could just bypass that launcher/account requirement is quite bizarre and from my understanding, a violation of Valve's terms of service by Square Enix

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That's not what this thread is about, in any of those games as far as i know you can always buy a non-steam license of that game in the original launcher without being locked out of your progress since your origin/ubisoft/rockstar account keep your progress, not steam.
For example if i own battlefield 4 both on steam and on origin, i won't have to launch BF4 through steam and launch it straight from origin if i choose to.

Unless SE clarifies otherwise there's no reason we can't have the same deal as those other games. I'd gladly pay extra to add a windows license to my account and keep my progress.

The steam link is similar to how it works with the PSN version, there is one-time link and that is the only account you can use for the FFXIV license.

I always felt the Steam version was just an extra layer of nuttiness for this game. Like if there was a do-over they probably wouldn't even list it there cause Valve gets a cut of the client cost. ARR was a time period they needed every sub possible and making the game as accessible as they could. Sure they have promos and all, but the SE store has them just as often. So I tell everyone to buy the game directly and not Steam nowadays.

It can take a while for them to gather feedback, negotiate a solution and prepare an announcement. Customer service can't give out any new information yet but there's still hope if y'all continue to be vocal about this on the forum, the official response to this issue could be updated.

I think the point where Square Enix would seriously start to listen would be if people would start sueing Square Enix in masses if this change is applied and people actually lose all access to their account due to regional issues or the game license on mogstation being from a different Steam account they have no more access to.

And I know that at least in Germany and France people would win such lawsuits:
- In France Valve lost a huge lawsuit regarding their no resale policy. Now they're forced to allow anyone in France to resell ANY games they buy on Steam
- In Germany Valve lost a gigantic lawsuit regarding their DRM. In case Valve shuts down their Steam servers for whatever reason, they MUST provide all German Steam users a tool to remove the DRM from ANY game they bought, and give them at least 6 or so months of waning time to download all games German users have in their Steam libraries
- And even Nintendo lost a lawsuit in Germany, when they attempted to narrow down their preorder and refund window to 7 days worldwide. German courts gave them a big, fat NO in the face, because German law demands any preorder to be cancellable until the day prior to release, and refunds are also a right customers MUST be provided. Terms and Conditions matter jack shit vs the laws of countries. The only thing companies can do against that is to not sell their games in those countries, but if they already did sell them there, they cannot back out anymore, when laws get uncomfortable.

What I think is the question that needs immediate answering is whether it's going to try to line up product keys or not. The announcement is very poorly worded in regards to this.

If its only checking to see if there is a copy of FFXIV (base game) on the steam account, but not checking keys or expansions, it really just means that anyone who no longer has access to the original steam account just needs to rebuy the base game on some other steam account, and link that one. That solution sucks, but its better than not having any option at all. And truly, no one should really be forced to do this.

There needs to be more information ASAP on this. It sounds like Steam support isn't being helpful, and why would they? They don't own the character data, there's little they can do to fix it themselves. SE needs to take responsibility for their customers.

Being able to have a windows license alongside a steam license would be good but it should be free. It would be really crass of them to allow it but ask money for it. Don't ask to pay for things that should be free.

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Originally Posted by ZedxKayn

Being able to have a windows license alongside a steam license would be good but it should be free. It would be really crass of them to allow it but ask money for it. Don't ask to pay for things that should be free.

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I agree although this is pretty standard in the industry. If I buy something from a platform its usually tied to that platform, and Steam considers itself a platform separate from PC. Same with the Windows Store as well.

Hopefully it'll only look for ARR's product key in the case it does check for keys. Then again they would've spoken about product keys rather than just licenses in such a broad and vague way

I really hope SE lets us migrate to a Windows version or allow us to input the Windows version key. I have regretted being on Steam since HW because back then they did not do a Steam version of the CE so I missed out on that.



I haven't used the game through Steam in years and I find having to launch Steam a hassle (I really do not care for it and its constant updates and ads upon launch).



I didn't even think of the possible issues regarding region locking but that seems like a serious oversight on SEs part.

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Originally Posted by Youkulm

Most of the steam users, I know personally ( wont speak for anyone else ) in game, are willing to re-buy the game. So this isn't a "switching" issue. They downright wont let us even have a windows and a steam key. They honestly need to fix this. This should not be an issue if I can have a PlayStation Key on the same account as a Steam Key. I should be able to have a Windows + Steam + PlayStation key if I want to.

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Why? It functions perfectly fine on steam.

I am once again, asking SE for the fucking privilege to buy my way out from under this stupid fucking Steam purchase. You want money, I'll give you money. I don't want to fucking be shackled to Steam anymore.

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Originally Posted by Aishikai

So which licenses have to "match" on steam? I launch the game in my main steam acc with a copy of ARR I bought for another acc I lost access to years ago. Since you can't buy another key, I made another steam account (to which I thankfully at least have access to), bought ARR and the expansions there and then kept launching the game from my main. Then I saw you could buy the expansions in your main, so I did.

Basically I've got up to Stormblood registered in my alt account and up to endwalker on my main acc.
My guess is I'll have to link with the alt?

EDIT: If it checks for product keys rather than licenses it's gonna screw tons of people over. And if ALL keys have to match, I'm boned

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I tell you I am in a similar situation, and seeing how the support doesn't know how it works it doesn't help.

I thinks you guys complaint to the wrong end of the rope.
SE put FF14 on steam and let Vault rip them off for a fee because some players would like to play on Steam.
Steam definitely need to make a profit somewhere in the line.

As your people want to leave Steam and go back to SE's main platform, it means Vault is losing profit.
The petition should be to wards Vault/Steam instead of SE so you guys have some sort of method to "buy out" yourself from Steam and move to SE.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

Why? It functions perfectly fine on steam.

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It doesn't work perfectly fine. Some people have either not access to their Steam account for one reason or another. Or have Regional differences because they moved and this would potentially lock them out of their SE account just because Steam / SE felt like introducing this linking procedure down the line without offering help.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

I thinks you guys complaint to the wrong end of the rope.
SE put FF14 on steam and let Vault rip them off for a fee because some players would like to play on Steam.
Steam definitely need to make a profit somewhere in the line.

As your people want to leave Steam and go back to SE's main platform, it means Vault is losing profit.
The petition should be to wards Vault/Steam instead of SE so you guys have some sort of method to "buy out" yourself from Steam and move to SE.

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Ultimately it's Square Enix's Account structure that is a problem here. Like the inability to switch Regions for your Service Account, or 6+ years down the line introducing this stipulation that the Steam Account and the Service Account will be hard locked to each other.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

Why? It functions perfectly fine on steam.

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It does anything but function fine in my opinion. If you read through the thread you can see all the issues people have. I'm not going to waste my time repeating them. If you're genuinely curious-- read the thread instead of asking?

The point is we should be able to buy and have the PC Version if we want without losing our characters.

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Originally Posted by Youkulm

Most of the steam users, I know personally ( wont speak for anyone else ) in game, are willing to re-buy the game. So this isn't a "switching" issue. They downright wont let us even have a windows and a steam key. They honestly need to fix this. This should not be an issue if I can have a PlayStation Key on the same account as a Steam Key. I should be able to have a Windows + Steam + PlayStation key if I want to.

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This is likely down to Valve. When you buy the Steam version Value will get a cut of anything you spend on FF14, even your sub. Think of Steam as like Play/Apple Store.

I am all for what's proposed here. Let us be free from Steam, please.

Bumping the thread back up. Would appreciate a response from a community rep as to why they're going to block mixed region and linux users.

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Originally Posted by Youkulm

Bumping the thread back up. Would appreciate a response from a community rep as to why they're going to block mixed region and linux users.

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Considering they introduce themselves and then are never heard from again I wouldn't get your hopes up in regards to a response.

Wont stop me from trying.

As a user with both Steam and non-Steam Windows licences, this upcoming change really concerns me.

TL;DR version: None of these Steam restrictions were in place or mentioned when I purchased my Steam service account in 2014 and I don't feel it's unreasonable for any of us to have a way to switch our accounts non-Steam as they keep adding more and more restrictions to it.

Much longer version (and kudos to anyone who actually reads it all): My original Windows account is from 2010 (1.0) and I bought an additional Steam service account in 2014 (2.28). I have a constant subscription for both. However, I made the "mistake" of putting both of them on the same Square Enix account, because that's what Square Enix suggested I do. They allow you have to 8 service accounts under the same main account so they all share the same login details and one-time password and it's a convenient way to manage them all at once.

However, as we all know, in 2015 when Heavensward came out it was announced we had to buy the expansions on Steam... something that they'd never mentioned until this point. Even though the game was purchased over a year earlier it seemed wrong to just mention this now, but okay so that's not a big deal... purchase expansion on Steam... done. It didn't personally affect me, but I remember at the time a lot of people were very upset as they wanted to get the physical collectors editions and they couldn't without having to also buy the game again on Steam.

But then in 2019 Square Enix made another change requiring us to now launch the game from Steam or it wouldn't work. I asked Square Enix support how I was supposed to handle this having one service account on Steam and one not on Steam and their reply "You'll need to install the game twice".

Thankfully it turned out that implementation was pretty basic and it was just a simple parameter being passed to the launcher, so all I had to do was launch the Steam service account from Steam and for the non-Steam one I can just run ffxivboot.exe directly from the same installation. Phew. But frequently when starting the game I forget which service account it was on last and if it's on the wrong one the game throws you right out, instead of just back to the menu. Argh! It's also very frustrating that for 5 years I was able to switch service accounts/characters with a simple /logout, data centers, select new service account, back in. But now I have to completely shutdown the game and go back in from the launcher and do the username/password/one-time password checks etc. It only adds a few extra minutes, but it's just annoying after 5 years of not having to do that.

And now Square Enix are adding in further integration, although have left us with many questions as they haven't explained how this process will actually work.

I've asked Square Enix support how this will affect me and if linking my account will then lock out my non-Steam service account and they replied very basically:

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You will still be able to log into the Windows Launcher to play on your other Service Accounts but you will only be able to launch FFXIV from the Steam account you choose to link to your SQUARE ENIX ID.

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So although that sounds like they're not worried and I'll be able to play... I can't help but still feel concerned as that still seems somewhat unclear.

People keep saying this is Steam's fault, not Square Enix, but I don't see how. Square Enix make the game, they also dictate how it runs/functions. None of the announcement say it's Steam requirements either. The game is popular enough that it doesn't have to be on Steam to continue to sell and if anything, Steam would probably be begging SE to keep it on Steam so they still get a percentage of sales. Maybe they're in an agreement, but agreements don't last forever and get renewed/changed all the times, so there's plenty of opportunity for Square Enix to change this and let us out of this Steam/convert our licence. It's crazy that it's 2021 and people can't still change region, but that's another battle...

Originally the 2019 announcements said those change were because of Steam, but after Steam confirming it was nothing to do with them Square Enix quietly updating the lodestone to say it was actually because of them. At least this time they straight away say this is their changes. This is from my original post from 2019 where I contacted Steam to ask why (click the blue symbol in the quote to get to see it in full):

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

https://i.imgur.com/9xTW4UE.png

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People have also said about how they're looking forward to it so they won't have to log in any more... there's no indication of that all. They would have said that if it was going to make your life easier, this is just another level of restrictions being added to your account.

Sorry for the very long post, largely just expressing my annoyance, but I'm a long term player of this game, with 2 constant subscriptions. I just want to play the game without worrying what hoops I will have to jump through next.

Please Square Enix give us a way to merge or add a standard non-Steam Windows licence to our accounts. Although legally you can change the terms of your game and we always have the option to stop playing, that shouldn't be our only option.

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Originally Posted by Yaibatsu

It doesn't work perfectly fine. Some people have either not access to their Steam account for one reason or another. Or have Regional differences because they moved and this would potentially lock them out of their SE account just because Steam / SE felt like introducing this linking procedure down the line without offering help.

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It literally works perfectly fine. If you lost your steam account that's on you. I have no idea how that could even happen outside of you getting banned......which in that case good riddance.

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Originally Posted by Youkulm

Bumping the thread back up. Would appreciate a response from a community rep as to why they're going to block mixed region and linux users.

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The reason was stated in the Lodestone notice - fraud prevention.

I really don't understand why so many people are so loyal to Steam when Steam policy is the underlying cause of the problem. They want your money. They're not going to give up access to your wallet easily. They write that into their contracts with companies who want their games sold through Steam. They write that into their terms and conditions with Steam account holders.

I stopped buying games through Steam several years ago unless Steam was the only way to purchase a game I wanted. A couple of my favorite games I repurchased outside of Steam so my ability to play them wouldn't be hindered by Steam issues. Starting over from scratch was far better than leaving Steam in control of my game access.

Those who are affected by the upcoming change have a choice - continue to leave Steam's ever changing terms and conditions controlling your access, or free yourselves once and for all even if it means starting over with a new license. Being veteran players with friends in the game, starting over really is not that difficult a task.

What would be even better is if SE ended their contract relationship with Steam completely. That would allow them to offer current Steam users a standard PC license since their old platform would no longer be supported. As long as Steam is supported as a platform, those who insist on purchasing their licenses through Steam will be left chained to it.

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

People keep saying this is Steam's fault, not Square Enix, but I don't see how. Square Enix make the game, they also dictate how it runs/functions.

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Valve has a contract with SE to sell/run the game that supports their financial interests. SE doesn't get to have complete autonomy about sales if they're using the Valve as a sales agent.

SE has no reason to object to having both license types on a single service account - they make money regardless.

Valve, solely a middleman for gaming transactions, has plenty of reasons to object if you're allowed to bypass their platform to make your purchases. They won't make a profit when you buy outside their platform. It's in Valve's interest to prevent you from being able to do that.

If you want to talk fault, ultimately it's the player's fault for choosing to use Steam as a middleman for their game transactions. If you don't want to deal with the nonsense, you shouldn't buy through Steam when you can buy through other retailers or even the game company directly.

and why should i start over and over again?
i should grind eureka ans boha once more? all relics? thx for suggestion, i'll pass.

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Originally Posted by colnix

and why should i start over and over again?
i should grind eureka ans boha once more? all relics? thx for suggestion, i'll pass.

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Which is your choice - stay bound to the terms and conditions of your Steam account to retain access to what you acquired through your Steam license.

Just stop complaining that you're stuck using Steam when you didn't need to go through Steam to play the game in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Valve has a contract with SE to sell/run the game that supports their financial interests. SE doesn't get to have complete autonomy about sales if they're using the Valve as a sales agent.

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Which is still on Square Enix for choosing to also distribute the game via Steam.

Maybe in the past it was a good way for them to get sales, especially after the disaster of 1.0, but the game is now popular enough that it would do just fine without Steam.

Whatever contract was in place with Steam is not eternal, it will have a set number of years on it and if it continues then that's still on Square Enix for continuing that contract.

One example of a popular game that used to be on Steam, but is now on another store (Epic Games) is Rocket League.

From the Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2...Rocket_League/

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Notice: At the request of the publisher, Rocket League® is unlisted on the Steam store and will not appear in search.

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Psyonix (now part of Epic games) chose to remove the game from Steam. Since SE could do the same, but continue to sell through Steam, this licence mess is still totally on them.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

SE has no reason to object to having both license types on a single service account - they make money regardless.

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Well they'd get more money if they didn't have to cut Steam in, but my question is why does the Steam version keep getting additional restrictions?

Having the expansion purchases tied to Steam is one thing, Steam continues to get a cut each time there's an expansion, but why force all these login requirements on us when it just annoys the players, or in some case like the Linux players may stop them from being able to play at all.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Valve, solely a middleman for gaming transactions, has plenty of reasons to object if you're allowed to bypass their platform to make your purchases. They won't make a profit when you buy outside their platform. It's in Valve's interest to prevent you from being able to do that.

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And yet when asked about it Valve denied making these restrictions (see my post above) as well as SE own Lodestone posts saying that they Square Enix are the ones making these changes.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

If you want to talk fault, ultimately it's the player's fault for choosing to use Steam as a middleman for their game transactions. If you don't want to deal with the nonsense, you shouldn't buy through Steam when you can buy through other retailers or even the game company directly.

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Yes thank you, hindsight is a wonderful thing that I wish I could have taken advantage of when they bought in these Steam specific changes (2015, 2019 and 2022) years after I actually bought the game (2014).

This could have gone the other way too, with Square Enix adding in extra restrictions to non-Steam accounts, but leaving the Steam accounts alone in which case you'd be saying "well you shouldn't have bought direct from Square Enix".

If a company changes how the product functions after it has been purchased, the consumer has a right to be upset and complain about it.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

...
Just stop complaining that you're stuck using Steam when you didn't need to go through Steam to play the game in the first place.

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Ah yes, because it was totally made clear that purchasing on steam would add all of this nonsense.
You would only have a leg to stand on here if the two versions weren't marketed as being directly and completely equivalent.

it had never been pointing about this when steam version was released. ubisoft can provide you an account yoy can play without even installing steam. so thats only se problem, that had put us in this condition. anyway, if they cant even change your region if you move to other place what should we expect.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Which is your choice - stay bound to the terms and conditions of your Steam account to retain access to what you acquired through your Steam license.

Just stop complaining that you're stuck using Steam when you didn't need to go through Steam to play the game in the first place.

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None of these problems or restrictions existed when I bought the game. I had never had issues with Steam previously, and at the time I did not need to have Steam running at all in order to play the game. I didn't know when I bought the game that I'd need to buy all expansions through Steam either, but that was barely even an inconvenience since 9 times out of 10 I don't care about physical collector's editions.

The problem is there's no way to get away from Steam without starting over, and I already had years of time and money sunk into this account before SE decided they needed to add more layers of security (and inconvenience) to buying the game through Steam. I have what probably adds up to at least $100, probably more, in mog station items on my main character, furniture and event items that are not obtainable even on the mog station, and achievement and other rewards that were limited time and may or may not ever be added again. So no, just starting over is not a viable option for me.

I'm lucky that these changes are more mildly irritating for me than anything else, but they are definitely still irritating.

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Originally Posted by Arkevorkhat

Ah yes, because it was totally made clear that purchasing on steam would add all of this nonsense.
You would only have a leg to stand on here if the two versions weren't marketed as being directly and completely equivalent.

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100%. I don't know why this is so hard for the people telling us to stop whining to understand. If i had been told 8 years ago "This is how your copy is going to need to function to run on steam" I would have never purchased it on Steam.

I don't feel it's a big ask for SE to let us buy a PC copy when its an entirely different platform. If the Steam and PlayStation copies an co-exist on one account then so should PC and Steam. Period.

This isn't the kind of thing you start doing 7+ years after you start selling accounts. You could have avoided all these issues if you'd started with account linking back then.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

It literally works perfectly fine. If you lost your steam account that's on you. I have no idea how that could even happen outside of you getting banned......which in that case good riddance.

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this is victim blaming, get out of here with your terrible attitude

The forced account linking is unreal. There are so many people in different situations who just ultimately LOVE the game.

This policy threatens to jeopardize a substantial portion of the playerbase from losing their accounts, some who have been playing since 1.0, and some who have made numerous purchases through Mogstation.

If people lose their accounts, this is going to have a horrific impact on the wholesome and spotless image that they have been cultivating for years. Really it's just adding unnecessary stress and bad press to the situation for everyone.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

It literally works perfectly fine. If you lost your steam account that's on you. I have no idea how that could even happen outside of you getting banned......which in that case good riddance.

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I made my SE service account in America, my Steam account is tied to my current local payment method, which is germany, and thus, EU. I am not banned and you are frankly just being a jerk about this issue people have.

and that is one of the reasons people use steam. they can freely change their region and play a game. and now... they will face the same problem of SE -> you just cant change region of a SE account

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Originally Posted by Yaibatsu

frankly just being a jerk about this issue people have.

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It's sad. They've been doing that in both this thread and the Linux thread. I fail to see what's so difficult about supporting those in the community that need help.

This has caused me an ungodly amount of anxiety ever since the announcement. Why wouldn't SE even let us change regions of our accounts? If I had known steam would be this much trouble I would've never bought it. Does our wallet need to match our SE service account region now? I really hate this change. I've invested so much time and money into my account, if I'm forced to I just would like to keep my houses...then I'd start over. But I can't even do that.

I'm willing to rebuy the game again and all the expansions if only I could get away from steam just let me keep my characters please?