Steam payment HUGE price increase!

[Ayerinn]

"4. BILLING PROCEDURES AND RECURRING TRANSACTIONS
4.1 "...Square Enix may change fee rates at any time in its sole discretion, and will use reasonable efforts to notify you at least 30 days in advance of any changes to any Recurring Fees. All FFXIV Subscription Fees are billed in advance. All FFXIV Subscription Fees are non-refundable, with the limited exception in Section 4.7 below."

SQUARE ENIX NEVER NOTICED US THAT PRICES WOULD BE ADJUSTED!
!

First of all, I think it is horrible business practice to have not notified players about this change in pricing. However, "Recurring Fees" would refer to things like Auto Renew NOT one time subscription purchases. You are buying 30 days of game time (essentially a product with a defined length and expiration)but you are not signing up for a recurring fee, technically, unless you choose auto renew. In fact, people have mentioned the auto renew price has not changed...probably not a coincidence.

[lollamoon]

It's not about what they're doing but HOW they're doing. If they had warned us about it and if they had planned to do this at the end of HW xpac, for example, things would be different now. But it's feels bad to think that this xpac was just a bait to fill the servers before make us to pay 2x or 3x more.

[YitharV2]

But it's feels bad to think that this xpac was just a bait to fill the servers before make us to pay 2x or 3x more.

Even without the price increase, I do feel like it's bait anyways. More of the same old, but I get that what SE's doing is working for them, so meh.

[Allalone]

Thanks SE, now is like I'm paying a game every month just to play FFXIV.

T H A N K S!

[Velxeor]

First of all, I think it is horrible business practice to have not notified players about this change in pricing. However, "Recurring Fees" would refer to things like Auto Renew NOT one time subscription purchases. You are buying 30 days of game time (essentially a product with a defined length and expiration)but you are not signing up for a recurring fee, technically, unless you choose auto renew. In fact, people have mentioned the auto renew price has not changed...probably not a coincidence.

It was mentioned above that auto-renewal acts as a contract and upon expiration of this SE contract with Seam, the price for auto-renewal will probably be the same as a one time payment. When the contract ends, who knows?
Okay raised by 50%, well raised by 80%, but not by 350%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Оо *RAGE*

[colnix]

It was mentioned above that auto-renewal acts as a contract and upon expiration of this SE contract with Seam, the price for auto-renewal will probably be the same as a one time payment. When the contract ends, who knows?
Okay raised by 50%, well raised by 80%, but not by 350%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Оо *RAGE*

ive created the ticket and waiting for reply

[Niwashi]

However, "Recurring Fees" would refer to things like Auto Renew NOT one time subscription purchases. You are buying 30 days of game time (essentially a product with a defined length and expiration)but you are not signing up for a recurring fee, technically, unless you choose auto renew.

The NA version of the user agreement, it promises 30 days advance notice for changes to recurring fees, and it also defines it:
"A 'Recurring Fee' is a fee that will be charged on a recurring basis until you terminate your subscription."
The subscription fee itself is a recurring fee because it's charged repeatedly. Whether you pay it automatically or manually doesn't change the fact that you have to pay it repeatedly in order to maintain your sub. It's even pointed out in the opening of that paragraph:
"In order to access SQUARE ENIX's servers to play the Game, you must agree to a recurring subscription ("Subscription") with a minimum subscription term of 30 days, and pay a recurring subscription fee ("FFXIV Subscription Fee")."

In the EU version of the user agreement, the part about the 30 day notice doesn't even mention the fact that it's recurring, just mentioning subscription fees:
"FINAL FANTASY XIV Subscription Fee rates will be posted at http://sqex.to/ffxivfees_eu, and any changes to those rates will be posted with 30 days’ advance notice and notice will be provided to the Game community and by email to User’s registered email addresses."

By neither version would automatic versus manual payments of that recurring subscription fee make any difference to SE's promise that it won't change without 30 days advance notice.


EDIT:
It seems they may be getting around the rule by only listing prices in euros and pounds on the EU site, only in US dollars on the NA site, and only in yen on the JP site. Maybe they're treating it as though it's only those currencies that are (temporarily) guaranteed, and screw anyone else.

[Ayerinn]

The NA version of the user agreement, it promises 30 days advance notice for changes to recurring fees, and it also defines it:
"A 'Recurring Fee' is a fee that will be charged on a recurring basis until you terminate your subscription."
The subscription fee itself is a recurring fee because it's charged repeatedly. Whether you pay it automatically or manually doesn't change the fact that you have to pay it repeatedly in order to maintain your sub. It's even pointed out in the opening of that paragraph:"In order to access SQUARE ENIX's servers to play the Game, you must agree to a recurring subscription ("Subscription") with a minimum subscription term of 30 days, and pay a recurring subscription fee ("FFXIV Subscription Fee")."

In the EU version of the user agreement, the part about the 30 day notice doesn't even mention the fact that it's recurring, just mentioning subscription fees:
"FINAL FANTASY XIV Subscription Fee rates will be posted at http://sqex.to/ffxivfees_eu, and any changes to those rates will be posted with 30 days’ advance notice and notice will be provided to the Game community and by email to User’s registered email addresses."

By neither version would automatic versus manual payments of that recurring subscription fee make any difference to SE's promise that it won't change without 30 days advance notice.


EDIT:
It seems they may be getting around the rule by only listing prices in euros and pounds on the EU site, and only in US dollars on the NA site. Maybe they're treating it as though only those currencies are (temporarily) guaranteed, and screw anyone else.

I disagree with your interpretation (for NA ONLY...so the BRL change)- if you are not agreeing to auto renewal you are NOT incurring recurring fees...you have the choice every 30 days to purchase another product aka 30 day subscription. you literally purchased 30 days of subscription time with no recurring fees attached - if you do nothing, it ends, you are not charged anything other than what you paid upfront for those 30 days. UNLESS you agree to auto renewal - in which case you ARE incurring a recurring fee because you agreed to it. I agree that the next line of text makes it a little murky but I would be willing to bet the lawyers could successfully argue the interpretation.

The EU version is not as clean and they screwed themselves on that one - it can not be interpreted the same and they INDEED did not follow their own ToS/U. EU has a case...NA I do not believe does - at least imo.

I also think, after saying all that above, that they could argue that they didn't actually change prices on anything...technically, like you were sort of pointing out, the official pricing is in $/Euro/Pounds - they could easily argue it was an update to currency exchange rates and leave it at that.

[Zarabeth]

I disagree with your interpretation (for NA ONLY...so the BRL change)- if you are not agreeing to auto renewal you are NOT incurring recurring fees...you have the choice every 30 days to purchase another product aka 30 day subscription. you literally purchased 30 days of subscription time with no recurring fees attached - if you do nothing, it ends, you are not charged anything other than what you paid upfront for those 30 days. UNLESS you agree to auto renewal - in which case you ARE incurring a recurring fee because you agreed to it. I agree that the next line of text makes it a little murky but I would be willing to bet the lawyers could successfully argue the interpretation.

You are correct in the way you interpret this as far as the US goes. I'm not sure if the ToS is different for your country.

[Niwashi]

I disagree with your interpretation (for NA ONLY...so the BRL change)- if you are not agreeing to auto renewal you are NOT incurring recurring fees...you have the choice every 30 days to purchase another product aka 30 day subscription.

I could certainly see someone, or some company, using that interpretation of the term "renewing" (even though that would more commonly be clearly spelled out as "automatically renewing"), but SE explicitly defined the term for this instance. By their own definition, as well as their own usage in that same paragraph, renewing just means that you have to keep paying it as long as you want to keep your subscription active and maintain your access to the game. There's nothing in that definition about whether the payment of that charge happens automatically or not.