Quote Originally Posted by DoppelShifter View Post
Even if this issue is real, this "solution" was extremely harmful for *all* legitimate players from those regions, which makes it a terribly shortsighted decision. They're losing subscribers, getting lots of negative atention and negative press... over what? Poorly handled microtransactions?
It most likely is real. Heck, it was apparently a "well known" practice for individual NA WoW players to pay for their sub in BRL...Blizzard nipped it in the bud years ago though (that is how I even found out about people doing it.) I wouldn't be surprised if some FF14 players are doing just that as well through Steam...could be at least one of the reasons for the change.