Patch 3.4 - Soul Surrender

[Fenral]

I've never seen an MMO that didn't require all previous expansions barring perhaps GW1 (which is rather unique and isn't a typical MMO). Where are you getting the notion that expansions have to be compatible with just the base game?

EverQuest expansions were individual installs that you could mix-and-match for a very long time, before they gave in and adopted the WoW distribution model. Final Fantasy XI expansions are also (technically) independent, with occasional caveats like Abyssea requiring Rise of the Zilart and Wings of the Goddess, but not the other two in between. Star Wars: The Old Republic lets you skip to the current expansion and has never required the previous expansions. And so on.

The usual marketing assumption is that you'll want all of them, so they make it as easy as possible with discounts and combo packs and such, but seeing as the FFXIV launcher is set up for individual expansion installs and version updates, I'm guessijng they'll be independent for at least a little while longer. At the very least, it wouldn't surprise me.