Allow dual registration of Windows and Steam accounts on the Mogstation

As of August 29, 2019, even though I've paid for a Steam license for Final Fantasy XIV in order to launch the game through Steam I am unable to launch the game as intended due to the current restrictions on Steam and Windows versions registered through the Mogstation.

Please revert these changes, allow those who purchased a copy of the game through Steam to actually launch the client in that manner, allow us to transfer licenses, or add Steam as another platform on the Mogstation.

There are many people who are upset with these current changes from both Steam users and Windows users and there are many avenues which could be utilized to alleviate these users legitimate concerns, but as of the time of this writing there is no such recourse for Legacy players who purchased the game twice and want to play the game through Steam.

Thank you

I second this, as I'm now unable to use the Steam version of the game that I have payed for and used for over 3000 hours.

I have to use the windows launcher, which does not enable all the tracking and community features that I enjoy from Steam.

Considering that they are treated as separate platforms to begin with I agree. This should have been a no-brainer from the get go.

Like others, I use the steam launcher to track play, screenshot handling, etc. I can't speak for others but the only reason I didn't "get the game on steam to begin with" is because I started play in beta. I'm fairly certain there was only a windows launcher and no way to have a steam version for those perks until later. So there's that. As for the whole this change has been known for whatever time, I just play the game and don't meta. I didn't even have a forum name until right now to add a me too on this thread and express my irritation about the matter.

Just a quick question - I thought the problem arose because of Valve itself, rather than SE? You might like what you used to have, but contractually ... ?

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Originally Posted by DPZ2

Just a quick question - I thought the problem arose because of Valve itself, rather than SE? You might like what you used to have, but contractually ... ?

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If that is indeed true, it would behoove Square to put out an official announcement to that effect. Random speculation and hearsay doesn't carry the same weight.

As is, none of the official statements have indicated that it's due to anything at the Valve end, only that these are "anti-fraud measures."

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Originally Posted by Grodian

If that is indeed true, it would behoove Square to put out an official announcement to that effect. Random speculation and hearsay doesn't carry the same weight.

As is, none of the official statements have indicated that it's due to anything at the Valve end, only that these are "anti-fraud measures."

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And even Steam has been very quick to state that this is SE policy, not Valve policy, when they have been contacted about it. Combined with the lack of communication from SE saying it's a Valve issue, lends credence to the belief that this is SE doing this.

With Windows (Steam) and Windows (Non-Steam) being treated separately they need to either be merged into a single Windows licence where they are treated the same (and it doesn't matter where you buy the expansions from), or they need to be fully split into two separate licences, like PlayStation 4, Mac, etc.

Square Enix claimed that the changes on the 29th August would only affect the Steam version and that Steam users would need to launch the game via Steam. Within hours of this update Steam were able to add a parameter to their shortcut so it hasn't actually changed anything at all. However, those same changes have also stopped non-Steam users from launching the game via Steam. For them to do this they had to pay extra money to purchase the game again and have been able to launch the game this way without issues for the last 5 years.

These changes have caused numerous problems for paying customers:

1) General confusion - The error message being received doesn't explain why they are seeing that error and only makes people fear for their account. It also wasn't even mentioned in the 5.08 patch notes which has further added to the confusion.

2) There are Steam users who don't wish to run the game via Steam for personal/technical reasons and haven't had to do so for the last 5 years.

3) There are non-Steam users who do want to run the game via Steam and have purchased the game again to do this. This is to assist with Steam controller support, logging playtime (of all their characters combined), screenshot taking/uploading and discussion on Steam user forums/guides. With the new changes they can no longer use what they have purchased, but they've been able to do this for the last 5 years.

4) If someone has both a Steam and non-Steam service account, officially they're being told by Square Enix support to install the game twice using twice the disk space.

5) Should someone have both Steam and non-Steam service accounts on the same master account, they can no longer smoothly switch between the two. Instead they now have to exit the game completely, start a different launcher, log back in including one time password and only then after all this can they pick the other account. However if they should click the wrong one (both have near identical names) it exits the game rather than returning them to the main menu and they have to start over.

It's not possible to refund the game on Steam, so how is trying to force people to use the Steam launcher stopping fraud? All I can see are a lot of people who pay Square Enix a subscription each month to play the game, two subscriptions for anyone affected by point 5, but instead they're having to jump through multiple hoops/unable to play as they were in the past.

Since there's a parameter workaround for Steam users it defeats the point of what Square Enix claimed they were trying to accomplish so why has this not been reversed yet? Right now it's affecting users that shouldn't even have been affected, based on Square Enix's statement about only the Steam version would be affected.

None of us really know what exactly Square Enix is trying to accomplish here, but if upsetting your active paying subscribers was the plan, well done, it's working.

I was a 1.0 player, when ARR was announced on Steam I relished the thought of playing it again on the platform of my choice because it could keep track of hours, screenshots, etc. At the time I bought ARR on Steam and I added the ARR key to my old 1.0 account not thinking something like this would ever happen. Because of that, my account is just considered a "Windows" account and I cannot continue to use Steam like I have been the last 4 years or so. Square please reconsider this change, allow people to have the choice of using Steam or not.

I use Steam Play to play on linux so just switching to the standalone version is not an easy option for me.

I started playing again recently after seeing that Steam Play could run FFXIV on linux fairly easily. Maybe there is some way to set up the standalone version on linux, but I doubt it will be as easy to set up and keep up to date as Steam Play. For now I guess I just can't play :(

Not cool that SE did this and double not cool that they did it without any warning that it would effect users logging into steam with windows accounts.

I would be glad to buy the steam version if I could. Please give me some kind of option SE!

I'm disappointed that it's been over a week and SE hasn't said anything at about this, despite the number of players who have posted in forum threads, on reddit and probably even contacted support.

At this point it seems people are just using workarounds to reverse these requirements that SE was trying to make:

• Steam users are adding an extra parameter when they start it up so they can continue to launch the game outside of Steam.
• Non-Steam users are editing the Steam configuration to remove that same extra parameter so they can continue to launch the game through Steam.

The only people still affected by this are those that have actually bought the game twice and have two different service accounts/subscriptions. They can no longer quickly switch service accounts and now have to exit the game completely, select a different startup shortcut and have all the hassle of logging back in again.

The original post by SE said it was to force Steam users to run it via Steam. Since they can still do that, can you please just remove these restrictions. I used to swap accounts/characters all the time (literally swap, do something, swap back, do some more things, swap again...), but in the last week I've hardly played on either account because it's frankly too much effort to swap now. Maybe I should drop the second subscription and play on the one account, but the joke is on me as I just paid for 6 months before this happened :(

Sorry for the bitter post, but I've really enjoyed playing this game for 6 years. Then all of a sudden it's now a chore to actually get onto my characters that I've worked on for so long... so I hope you can understand why I'm bitter...

It's like right now, I want to switch characters to one on another service account, but that now involves closing the game completely and I'm seriously thinking is it worth the effort to start it all back up again... or shall I just go play something else...

Edit: So I did log back in, and then hit "Start" without thinking instead of "Data Center":

https://i.imgur.com/16zQune.png

Which then throws me out of the game completely. If nothing else, can you please just make that error at least return you to the main menu? Everytime I launch the game now I have to try to remember to click "Data Center" (because I'm unsure which service account I was on last and if I don't pick the right one it throws me out...)

Sorry, it's just very very very frustrating when something works well for over 5 years and now it's just a total mess.