Need Clarification for the Steam Players...

[Nubian]

1: I have bought FFXIV through Steam. Can I play it outside of Steam if I have the FFXIV client independantly installed outside of Steam?

2: If the answer is 'yes' to the first question -> can I then activate Heavensward content with a product key purchased outside of Steam and access this through the FFXIV client that is seperate from Steam?

1. Yes. As long as you have registered a Windows-license to your service-account, the PC-version can be played however you like. There is no separate Steam-client.


2. No. Although there are no differences in the client you download from Steam vs. the one you download from SE, your service-account is flagged if the Windows-license has been redeemed with a Steam-key. For some reason if it has been flagged as a Steam-version, only a Heavensward Steam-key can be redeemed on the service-account.

As has been mentioned earlier the issue here is SE not making the Steam-version a separate license from the Windows-version, even though they obviously treat the two differently. It is not an issue with Valve being greedy as they have nothing to do with how SE engineer their account-system. The problem is SE incompetence and I would love to hear from the devs/mods why the Steam-version is not treated as a separate license even though the account back-end flags it as a different entity.