PC/Mac what to buy

I've been playing the demo on the PC (via Steam) and am really loving it, and at this rate I'll buy the game and subscribe.

But, I'd like to play on both my PC and on my Mac and from a bit of searching on the net it's not clear what the best way to do this is - lots of clearly very old info there.

I assumed that you've buy a license, subscribe and then just download the client you want (like WOW), but apparently that's not the case, then this seems to be complicated by Steam, and what license you need for Steam etc.

So my question is, what is the currently accurate, best way to do this?

Steam does complicate things a little bit. If you'd like to keep your character, you'll have to buy the game (and all expansions) through Steam, as "Steam" and "PC" are considered two different platforms.

But even if you were to start over with the PC client, it's important to know that you have to buy the game (and all expansions) for each platform you want to have full access on.

From here it gets a little bit funny. Say you buy the base game for PC and the base game for Mac. You would be able to log in on both PC and Mac and play up to Lv50 with access to everything from 2.0 to 2.55. Then you buy Heavensward for just PC. This lets you continue to gain experience up to Lv60, and enjoy the 3.0-3.57 content on PC only. If you enter a Heavensward area and then log out, you can only log back in on PC because your Mac doesn't have HW access. You can continue to play on Mac if you first log back in on PC and move back to a base game area.

Now, I know that sounds unnecessarily complicated, but it brings us to an option that you might find of interest.

When Stormblood launches in June, all copies of Stormblood "by itself" (that is, not the ARR+HW+SB bundle) will actually be Stormblood+Heavensward. So if you wanted to do like I describe above, where you get ARR+HW on one platform and just ARR on the other, then the second platform can get HW access when you buy a copy of Stormblood for it.. So you don't have to commit to full access on both platforms right this second, if you want to take some time to consider your options.

Is it possible to boot windows from the mac or vice versa?

Thanks for the reply, that's pretty clear. Now you say that Steam counts as a platform, would buying AAR&HW on Steam allow for playing on Steam on both Mac and PC?

A separate question is why did they make it so needlessly confusing and complex, you already have a Square account with subscription information, WTF did they have to bind it to client OS as well? I've got no problem with say buying the client once per OS, I get that it costs money to support multiple platforms, but this seems needlessly complex given just how simple their competition make it.

You can boot Windows on a Mac using Bootcamp, but it means shutting down and rebooting my Mac. Since I leave stuff running quite happily for months, I really don't want to do that. It's a Mac, I don't have to do the reboot every week thing, I've got a Windows 10 PC for that :)

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Originally Posted by Rhuaglar

would buying AAR&HW on Steam allow for playing on Steam on both Mac and PC?

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I'm looking at the Steam store page for XIV and it shows only the windows icon, so you'd still only be able to play on Windows. I haven't heard anything about plans to add mac or linux clients to Steam, and I expect it to stay Windows-only for the foreseeable future.

Doh, I guess I should have checked that bit myself. Thanks again for explaining things.

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Originally Posted by Rhuaglar

I get that it costs money to support multiple platforms, but this seems needlessly complex given just how simple their competition make it.

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How many of their competitors are also on console, or have physical copies of their game for sale?

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

How many of their competitors are also on console, or have physical copies of their game for sale?

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Elder Scrolls Online is probably the best modern example, although there have been others over the years. Even so, I think most of those examples did not allow cross-platform play, so the concept of needing to buy multiple licenses in order to play the same character across multiple platforms doesn't even exist in those cases.

That said... Square Enix definitely has a reputation for its arcane (complicated) account and billing practices, at least among their North American audience. When someone makes a statement that SE account management "seems needlessly complex" it's certainly true. Just as a recent example, I pre-ordered Stormblood and normally I would expect to just log into my account in the store and the purchase with all perks would automatically apply itself to my account like you would normally expect with any other game. Instead, after making the purchase from one website, I had to log into another website to apply the purchase to my account, and then had to log into another website in order to apply the promo code for the item bonuses to my account. The fact that all three websites use the same log-in credentials makes this seem super unnecessary and complicated. And I'm fortunate enough to have only ever played on a single platform for FFXIV using a single account that goes all the way back to early FFXI days, so it's relatively simple for me most of the time. I always sympathize with anyone who has a question about billing or accounts, especially when it involves multiple licences, because it's almost never an obvious answer to find so no wonder they had a question about it.

If I had to guess why they do it the way they do... I'd guess that their account/billing choices are more consistent with typical Japanese and/or Asian practices rather than the western ones that we are used to, so some of the ways they organize their sites and rules just feels weird to us but might be perfectly normal to someone from Japan. Just a guess, mind you. I know that when I find myself on a website that is clearly intended for a Japanese audience - for example, a popular fansite or a Japanese tv show's website - the typical layout, linking structure, and overall navigation is often very different from what I would normally expect of a similar type of page intended for a North American audience. But that's purely anecdotal and subjective observation, so take it as you will.

Agreed, tho. The whole multiple site thing is weirdly convoluted. Mogstations and Lodestone, official SE site, whatever this forum is connected to, game client. It's definitely not a very streamlined service.

Though it doesn't relate to purchase and registration of the game, another complication you should be aware of in regards to playing on multiple platforms is that some configuration settings (your HUD layout, hotbars, and gearsets, along with a few other settings) are stored locally on your client machine. So if you change one of those on one platform, then next time log in from the other platform, those settings won't automatically carry over.

I think you can manually copy some setup files across between platforms to transfer those settings, but I've only actually heard of people doing that when they played on two different PCs (typically a desktop and laptop). Mac isn't as widespread, but I'd assume it would use the same configuration files, in which case copying them across would work between PC and Mac the same way. (Leaving just those who alternate between consoles and computers left out and needing to re-do all such settings from scratch, since consoles do store things differently.)

Well honestly it's complicated enough that I'll probably avoid ever going down the route of playing on my Mac. My primary gaming platform is the PC so I'll probably just make do with that for now. I'd have expected them to realize that as a non-f2p MMO, they get their money through their subscriptions, any barrier to entry seems silly. Not that any thread here will change their mind :)

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Though it doesn't relate to purchase and registration of the game, another complication you should be aware of in regards to playing on multiple platforms is that some configuration settings (your HUD layout, hotbars, and gearsets, along with a few other settings) are stored locally on your client machine. So if you change one of those on one platform, then next time log in from the other platform, those settings won't automatically carry over.

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Wow has similar issues actually, though copying the files there just works.