The FFXIV Portrait Magnets up for preorder are BLIND BOXES?!

I've bought a lot of FFXIV official merch over the years because I love this game and I'm thankfully in a stable and financially secure enough place in my life to buy fun little things for myself. But I draw the line at this sort of crap. What's really made me angry is the two new portrait magnet sets up for preorder starting today.
Set 1 and Set 2 for reference.

When I first saw these previewed, I thought I'd probably pick up magnets for 3 or 4 for my favorite characters and call it good. But then I realized they're bundled in sets and you have to buy 8 magnets at once. Okay...that's kind of annoying as I don't want all of them, but whatever, I guess I'll have more magnets.

BUT NO
THAT'S NOT THE WORST PART

The most insulting thing about this preorder? You are forced to buy a set of 8 BLIND BOXES for that price!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

So I spend all that money + shipping for only the chance at getting one of the characters I actually want?? And if I have extras or don't get the ones I wanted, it's up to me to go navigate third party resellers on Ebay to sell the ones I don't want and buy the ones I do want??

No. HELL no. We don't even know if the characters seen here are printed at the same rate or not. This is both predatory and wasteful and I can't stand it when companies do stuff like this. I wanted to make a post about it because I suspect that many others, like me, initially looked at the listing and the price and assumed you are buying the full set of 8 magnets with each character for that price. You are not. You are buying 8 random magnets.

That's japan for you. They love gacha elements over there for some dumb reason.

What's real sad is there will be a ton of people buying these because they didn't thoroughly read the description and that's intentional.

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Originally Posted by Thurmnmurmn

That's japan for you. They love gacha elements over there for some dumb reason.

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When it's in one of those gachapon machines that are everywhere in Japan, yeah, it's still rather wasteful, but I guess it doesn't bother me quite as much. Most of the items in those are relatively small and inexpensive and released in a similar theme, so you don't feel like you wasted a ton of money + Japan has a whole local trading culture for gatchapon stuff.

But this is the first time I've seen a blind box thing for sale on the Square-Enix store. And you have to buy $88 worth of the damn things in one go. AND this is an international store. I can't just go to a swap meet and trade with others that easily. It's just a stupid, wasteful decision.

just don't buy this garbage? these characters are just some boring dudes from MSQ one, not even Hildebrand.

and wait when people gonna put it on ebay

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Originally Posted by lolnotacat

What's real sad is there will be a ton of people buying these because they didn't thoroughly read the description and that's intentional.

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Yep. I can already anticipate a bunch of people come April next year will get their preorders and then realize they didn't buy a set, they bought gacha boxes. The fact that this isn't stated up front in the item name and you have to scroll down and read under the "description" part to see anything about this is messed up.

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Each blind box contains 1 (one) random miniature framed portrait magnet and an easel.
Collect them all to make your own miniature art gallery!
$88

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That's literally just trolling, like they are actively being malicious at this point

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Originally Posted by lolnotacat

What's real sad is there will be a ton of people buying these because they didn't thoroughly read the description and that's intentional.

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Yeah, it is sad. People tend to just purchase things without reading the small print. It should be illegal to do this gacha stuff when people are paying real money.

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Originally Posted by Kacho_Nacho

Yeah, it is sad. People tend to just purchase things without reading the small print. It should be illegal to do this gacha stuff when people are paying real money.

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It's annoying that they're doing this kinda shit. It's what I associate with scummy mobile game companies that are fly by night and don't plan on being around more than 6 months to a year. If "Gatcha" were in the title, I'd think it's scummy but excusable. The way these are presented is a scam and meant to take advantage of people. Yes, caveat emptor, but a company should be forthright in every aspect with its customers.

Bruh, they may as well stop selling permanent outfits on the Mog Station and just start listing them as new outfits that expire every 90 days.

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Originally Posted by Sunhwapark

Bruh, they may as well stop selling permanent outfits on the Mog Station and just start listing them as new outfits that expire every 90 days.

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Can you imagine if a new outfit was released on the mogstation, but now you have to pay five bucks to open a box and get one single random PIECE of the outfit you wanted? Oh, you're a viera or hrothgar player and you rolled a hat? Damn, tough luck! Better spend another five dollars and try again!

I hate lootboxes/gatcha mechanics so goddamn much.

my friend did some maths, here are your odds of getting Y many uniques after opening X many boxes

https://i.imgur.com/1cYWkBn.png

tl;dr the odds of getting all eight with the purchase of:
one pack: 0.24%
two packs: 30.7%
three packs: 70.3%

Imagine spending $264 + S/H and still having a 1-in-3 chance of not getting all 8 magnets

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Originally Posted by Sunhwapark

Bruh, they may as well stop selling permanent outfits on the Mog Station and just start listing them as new outfits that expire every 90 days.

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*Maplestory Flashbacks*

I noticed it too - I was thinking of buying a set, but I'm definitely not going to waste my money on blind boxes. Plus, I'll bet they made G'raha one of the rarest ones. I'd probably end up with 5 Kan-E-Sennas and 3 Alphinauds.

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Originally Posted by cutestfox

my friend did some maths, here are your odds of getting Y many uniques after opening X many boxes

https://i.imgur.com/1cYWkBn.png

tl;dr the odds of getting all eight with the purchase of:
one pack: 0.24%
two packs: 30.7%
three packs: 70.3%

Imagine spending $264 + S/H and still having a 1-in-3 chance of not getting all 8 magnets

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Oh no, those numbers are DIRE

I play enough TTRPGs to know how garbage my luck can get. HELL NO

Yeah... even the site I normally order imported FFXIV stuff from is only selling them blind and not specific ones... no way I'm gonna risk getting Kan-E-Senna when I'm trying to shoot for Haurchefant/Aymeric/G'raha.

It's also weird that this new big set has some generic portrait/easel frame and not something that looks more like the frames that the in-game portraits have. The previous set had a more detailed framing and they looked great.

Can you imagine spending 88 dollars and every single one you get turns out to be Kann-e-Sena?

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Originally Posted by CuteBucket

Can you imagine if a new outfit was released on the mogstation, but now you have to pay five bucks to open a box and get one single random PIECE of the outfit you wanted? Oh, you're a viera or hrothgar player and you rolled a hat? Damn, tough luck! Better spend another five dollars and try again!

I hate lootboxes/gatcha mechanics so goddamn much.

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Same! And to be frank, it can be even worse.

I came to FFXIV from another MMO I'd played for 12 years. An MMO which started off okay but took at look at gambleboxes as a method of income and eventually based it's entire business model on selling them (and stupidly expensive bundles).
Imagine you want a particular weapon - you open a box and receive an item of garden furniture for a house you don't own. Oh well, bad luck - better buy another 5 box bundle and keep trying.

And in the background the game eventually started to suffer, as the Devs focus switched from making new playable content to making the gambleboxes more attractive to maintain profitability. And the worst part? They never revealed the odds of winning the 'main prize' (though they were independently worked out to be preposterously low) - I gather that, to this day, they seem to feel that they're under no obligation to do so.

To be honest, I'd almost definitely quit if gambleboxes found their way into this game. I've seen firsthand how they can ruin an MMO.

Mao likes doing things like maps even though thems has RNG in thems but Mao not actually gamblings with real moneys. As soon as real moneys involved Mao goes "NOPES". Is because odds always favor the house. SE must be desperate for moneys if thems willing to taint FFXIV with such gamblings.

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Originally Posted by Thurmnmurmn

That's japan for you. They love gacha elements over there for some dumb reason.

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Isn't it weird how American players infantilize Japanese people by making these broad sweeping generalizations based on what they see in a video game? It's vapid Orientalism. It's like you're describing the behaviors of a toddler who can't think for itself. This isn't the first time people here have pulled the "myserious Orient" card to justify a bad business practice.

paying that much money to not get the full set is crazy lmao what

You'd be better off finding somewhere you can buy generic mini frames and easels and just print your own pictures.

Wow what is that dogshit...I saw Zenos portrait and I was like 'yeah maybe...?' then reading it's blind lmao...

Pathetic, I guess SE really wants to fleece their XIV players and they're shameless about it.

I noticed this myself and it is actually disheartening that they aren't more obvious about it and I am glad I wasn't interested. I only ready the description as the release date on things has got more ridiculous more recently and these are not only loot boxes but a release of july 2025.

Literally all you have to do, is provide me a product, and I'll in turn give you money for said product. Inserting gambling as an element to this process is disgusting, distasteful, and probably one of the most anti-consumer practices out there. Especially for a whopping $88USD for bloody FRIDGE MAGNETS of all things. I'm sure if you were that desperate for a portrait of your favorite XIV characters you could pay someone on fiverr to glue a portrait onto a magnet to stick onto your fridge.

Yeah, this is really bad. I was already not happy about the big expensive bundles instead of selling individual ones, since most people would want only one or a few of their favourite characters anyway, but then I read the description, and it's gatcha. Not in an automat or by a cash register you'd drop by evey week, or packaged with candy and then you'd go get more locally, but extremely pricey gatcha, with international mail order, and with a waiting time of 10 months to find out if you even got what you wanted. This is ridiculous. And the description is way too well hidden; of course many people will click the buy button fast because they fear everything selling out immediately on this shop. Sure, maybe it's legal, and everyone should be responsible for their own purchases etc, but humans will still be humans, and this is simply not decent.

I see SE is starting to add gacha/lootbox type of thing into their merch. This doesn't bode well.

i was like: '85 euro for a few magnets, seriously?'
well the stuff in the se store is always too expensiv.
but thats not even the worst part, its a lootbox... heck no. no way i buy this shit

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Originally Posted by Asari5

i was like: '85 euro for a few magnets, seriously?'
well the stuff in the se store is always too expensiv.
but thats not even the worst part, its a lootbox... heck no. no way i buy this shit

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I wish no-one else would either. Sadly these things will sell out. Which is really disappointing - because in the end it doesn't matter how much you voice hate for these sleazy marketing tactics on the internet. If players give them money for things like this anyway, they are communicating that there is an element of the playerbase who're willing to accept this sort of financial abuse in the only language those producing the merch understand or care about.

An even better alternative:

Print out a picture of your favorite character, in COLOR even! (0.10USD) and then purchase magnets ($2USD) and stick it onto your fridge. Or even better purchase a frame to attach the picture to any flat vertical surface of your choosing ($5 USD). Truly remarkable that we can do such things in 2024.

If you don't like predatory consumer practices, don't buy into their schemes, and don't embarass yourself by spending $88USD on Fridge magnets...

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Originally Posted by Rehayem

I see SE is starting to add gacha/lootbox type of thing into their merch. This doesn't bode well.

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This is my issue too. I don't recall them ever releasing something like this for FFXIV before. It's a bad precedent. I ALMOST bought them until I read the description too, so I just want to spread the word to others to not waste their money.

They have done it before, I just don't recall if it was JP market exclusive.

The vinyl figures (I'm used to calling them Kids Figures thanks to Pokemon, but basically little vinyl finger-puppet figures) from the minion collection were blind box. They've released minion magnets as well which are blind boxed too, but the price points for both of those were less than the full box price of these portrait magnets.

It's a pretty common merchandise style both in Japan and in the west now too since I know funko and a couple other companies do blind box/pack figures and merch. Doesn't excuse it, it's 100% moneygrabbing no matter who does it, and it's made worse in this case because they know they can get away with it from people chasing the one portrait they really want in the set.

The type of people SE expects to buy it:

https://i.imgur.com/JhW34Al.jpeg

I won't buy this and I don't support blind boxes but it's oddly popular in JPN esp for smaller series or niche character casts. The way I managed we just to wait for the actual release date and buy other people's extras on Mercari Japan for much lower prices using a proxy. Also, these don't look too unique like no new original art and the frames look cheap.

For those disappointed by this dumb gacha crap who want an alternative, I'd try Redbubble. (They have TONS of FFXIV magnets.) And you'll be supporting an indie artist while you're at it! You can probably find art of just about any character you love. It won't be "official art," but after what the official store wants to sell, does that even matter?

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Originally Posted by CuteBucket

For those disappointed by this dumb gacha crap who want an alternative [...] And you'll be supporting an indie artist while you're at it! You can probably find art of just about any character you love. It won't be "official art," but after what the official store wants to sell, does that even matter?

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Probably not the best thing to bring to Square-Enix's attention if you'd like to continue supporting those indy artists making money off SE's IP.

I bought some similar FFXI merch a few months ago, little magnet paintings and some pins that were both blind boxes. I only bought three of each, I got one dupe in the pins and no dupes in the paintings.

https://i.imgur.com/DCHEWij.jpg

Didn't get the Ancient Blood painting I wanted but I did get the "secret" painting so I guess that's something.



But also they were 660 yen each, not 88 dollars for a set of 8. They seem like they're pretty much the exact same thing aside from the easel, so this seems overpriced to me.

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Originally Posted by Astronis

Probably not the best thing to bring to Square-Enix's attention if you'd like to continue supporting those indy artists making money off SE's IP.

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I highly doubt SE cares enough to go after some random users on Redbubble. Fan art is legally protected transformative work anyway. Maybe they'd have a case for the users just re-uploading official art and selling it on mugs and shirts, but even that they don't seem to bother with, having shopped on places like Redbubble and Etsy for fan made products for several years now.

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Originally Posted by PaulH

I noticed this myself and it is actually disheartening that they aren't more obvious about it and I am glad I wasn't interested. I only ready the description as the release date on things has got more ridiculous more recently and these are not only loot boxes but a release of july 2025.

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The pre-order and long release wait is more a product of a sort of shift in what "pre-orders" are. Used to just be you'd be getting first picks, or maybe get something earlier than "release date." Lately, it's moving more towards "pre-orders let us know approximately how many to manufacture so we're not sitting on excess stock."

When the release date is that far out, it means the product hasn't even started production yet. Who knows, final product may not even be exactly as depicted. But, ultimately, it's a business model designed to reduce waste and storage cost etc. Wouldn't exactly call it a bad thing.

Blind boxes, tho, kinda a bad thing.