Help me understand why PSN is needed to play this game.

[PArcher]

Buy the game on PC and you don't have to worry about this.

As for PC games not having this issue... Steam and Origin work similarly...either go down and games requiring either are restricted or don't work at all. Unless that's changed recently, but I'm 99% sure it has not...

[Mogi]

What maintenance i got on at 8 today then got off at 9 then back on at 11 with no probs? all so no one is making us use psn you can always buy it for both PC and ps4 or just pc

[Tashigi]

Buy the game on PC and you don't have to worry about this.

As for PC games not having this issue... Steam and Origin work similarly...either go down and games requiring either are restricted or don't work at all. Unless that's changed recently, but I'm 99% sure it has not...

If you've already activated your game, you can start Steam in offline mode and you're good to go.
So nope, you can bypass any maintenance on Steam if you want to.

[Tharian]

the reason that you need a PlayStation Network Account to play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on a PlayStation (regardless of type) is because you need a PlayStation Network Account in order to access the Internet on a PlayStation in the first place.

What you aren't required to have in order to play the game is a PlayStation Plus Membership, which is something almost every other MMO Game currently available on the PlayStation Network actually requires due to the way that those games manage their in-game currency or subscriptions through the PlayStation Store.

[Niwashi]

the reason that you need a PlayStation Network Account to play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on a PlayStation (regardless of type) is because you need a PlayStation Network Account in order to access the Internet on a PlayStation in the first place.

That's not true. Sony is not an ISP. You have to connect your PS3 or PS4 to whichever ISP is providing internet access to your home. Your console has to already be on the internet before it can even reach the Playstation Network, since it traverses the internet in order to get to the PSN. Sony provides authentication services and access to their Store. It does not provide access to the internet.

Now for some games, Sony's authentication services are used to verify your purchase of the game, but in this case, since it's a cross-platform game, SE is already providing all of that themselves. It's SE that keeps track of which versions of the game you've bought and whether your subscription is currently active. The fact that the PlayStation checks in with PSN is a holdover that's done just because there are some other games that need it. It's completely redundant on games like this one.

And to everyone who keeps saying essentially that they require it because they require it, yes, that's kind of the point of why people complain about it. It's required for no other purpose other than the fact that the decided to require it in all cases, whether useful or not. For this particular game, it's not useful.