Migrate from Steam to Winodows-version

Heya,

somebody I know plays FFXIV via steam but wants to pre-order the physical Collector's Edition of Heavensward. Since, we know already steam players must get steam expansions I was wondering if he could migrate to a normal windows version of the game if he buys it of course. Would he be able to keep his existing account by doing so ? If he does, he could then proceed to pre-order what he really wants :)

Anything else to take care in case it would work this way ? (installation, registration,...??)

Unfortunately not. The actual Windows installation on the hard drives of Steam/non-Steam versions are exactly the same (which is why non-Steam players can play via the Steam "version" and vice versa), the only difference is a flag on the account that marks it as Steam/non-Steam based on the Windows serial code that was used and likewise will be checking against the serial code for the expansion to see if it matches the region and if it's Steam/non-Steam etc.

For whatever reason Square has distinguished between the two types of Windows account and isn't offering people the ability to change Steam to non-Steam and vice versa. Your friend could ask SE support if they'll move their characters to a new account, nothing really to lose by trying, but I've never heard of anyone actually having that happen so tell them not to get their hopes up.

Alternatively they could try and setup a swap with someone they trust who would use their physical code and that person could purchase a Steam code for them, but I appreciate that's a bit messy.

Sorry I don't have better news :(

Edit: If they were thinking about playing on PS4 as well, they could get the PS4 physical CE and then just purchase the standard game on Steam normally (would get CE items still because of the PS4 version) so at least codes wouldn't be wasted. Just mentioning in case that's any help.

Well thank you, I will link him here so he can confirm by himself :)