Steam payment HUGE price increase!

[DoppelShifter]

Yes, but all players in that market had the chance and regional pricing was already in place officially by Blizzard. Here, only Steam customers could get the deal, so even a part of the players in those countries would not be eligible unless they buy the game again (as some did to get it in the first place).

I agree that it was handled much more smoothly in their case because it was an intended feature from the start. But that is the problem that caused this whole situation in the first place. If the price had been quoted on the website as official currencies from the very beginning, they would have given the notice. The problem for them is that Steam was an exception, and they let it fester for way, way too long.

Another, less obvious problem is that this is going in a counter current when compared to other examples in the industry.

This was mentioned countless times here in this thread, but other MMOs such as World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Warframe, storefronts like Steam and GoG, all of those switched to differential regional pricing as a means to attract more players from different markets and increase their revenue. Heck, when Steam introduced lower prices to the Russian region, Gaben himself mentioned that it would be foolish to ignore the Russian player base.

What's Square Enix doing? Sticking their heels on the floor and trying to enforce a payment & pricing model that Blizzard themselves started to move away from has been almost 10 years.

When was the last time that Squeenix tried to enforce practices that were 10 years old in an MMO while ignoring how their competitors were modernizing?

Oh, right. FFXIV 1.0...

[polyphonica]

What's Square Enix doing? Sticking their heels on the floor and trying to enforce a payment & pricing model that Blizzard themselves started to move away from has been almost 10 years.

I agree with you that regional pricing makes sense in general. But if that's the argument you're making, then it's back to being about "fairness" again. A lot of people want to say it's not about fairness (since Steam in RU/BR was an exception as it was), it's just about notification. But the argument about notification gets muddy for its own reasons.

There's no question that the situation is dire, but if you're trying to bring attention to "the cause" and get Square Enix to take action, what are your demands? Implementing regional pricing across all their systems and Platforms (and closing the Mogstation gifting loophole) would take months, and in the meantime they probably wouldn't let Steam continue to be a one-off exception in two countries. Realistically, the best you might get is an apology and a free month of playtime or something, but I don't see how they can really solve the problem over the short term, even if it were because they're behind the times.

No, it was not a loophole.

It basically was a loophole, because it only applied to Steam, and not direct Mogstation subscriptions or PS4, and only two countries (RU and BR) were way out of alignment with USD. It goes a bit beyond being half-assed, and looks more like an accident or mistake. "An unintentional good idea?" lol

[DoppelShifter]

[...]
There's no question that the situation is dire, but if you're trying to bring attention to "the cause" and get Square Enix to take action, what are your demands? [...]

Well, as much as I half-joked with some revolutionary speeches here... I'm not a revolutionary leader, I'm not the representative of the player base (I'm as much of a representative as any other player), so I can't exactly "list demands".

But I can say what I would like to see Square Enix doing, even though they're very likely to resist that to their last, even if that means keeping their current collision course:


I'd like to see them indeed start moving less "half-assedly" towards true regional pricing. Reinstate the Russian and Brazilian prices and start to actually keep track on the pricing for other regions, and how they could implement better regional alternatives (Canada, Australia and New Zealand are no-brainers when it comes to "next places that need better official regional pricing"). Heck, they could even use Valve's metrics, if they seem so incapable of setting those prices themselves (...even though they already do that for the prices of the base game at Steam).
They would need to change quite a few systems when it comes to pricing, billing and account management, so this transition would probably take months; but if the process was dealt with transparency and information to the players, I'm pretty sure the impact wouldn't be negative.

Over the course of a year or two, most of their major regions could have a regional pricing system slightly akin to World of Warcraft or League of Legends. They'd probably also have a larger player base, which comes as a consequence of this type of price localization. If they manage to use their revenue well and manage their infrastructure without botching anything, we could have a better FFXIV, with fair pricing for more regions, more players and a large and steady revenue for Square Enix.
I don't mind if the solution isn't exactly short term. I'm more than happy to wait a few months in a less-than-optimal situation if that means we're moving towards an optimal one, rather than sticking our feet in the past.

Rose-tinted glasses? Maybe. But there are precedents all around, including their biggest competitor (World of Warcraft). If we don't fight for a decent service, they will never give it to us.

[polyphonica]

[...] I'd like to see them indeed start moving less "half-assedly" towards true regional pricing. [...]

Well, specifics of how they get there aside, I agree with what you're saying in general. I think that's a worthy goal, even though it'll be a long road to get there.

Basically it allows us to crystallize the story so far:

1) Generally speaking, the whole world pays FFXIV subscription and Optional Item prices that are aligned to the baseline/official currency prices in USD, EUR, GBP and JPY. When you purchase directly from Square Enix, you will pay in one of the official currencies at the going market exchange rate.

2) If you buy the game through Steam, you have the option to pay via Steam Wallet. Steam Wallet uses regional pricing to convert to various global currencies; these prices are set by Square Enix. In most countries of the world, the prices are roughly equivalent to what you would pay in one of the official currencies.

3) However, in BR and RU, the prices in Steam were not aligned to the base currencies. If you converted these local market prices to USD/EUR, Steam customers in these two countries were able to subscribe and purchase optional items cheaper (in the case of RU, significantly cheaper) than customers outside of Steam or in other countries. This difference appears to have been caused in part by currency fluctuations, since the ratio had not been changed in nearly 5 years, despite major currency devaluation in these markets.

4) As a result of the lower Steam prices in those markets, FFXIV gained new customers who otherwise would not have been able to afford the game. They were subscribing at the seemingly-fixed local rates set through Steam Wallet, rather than the official price.

4b) Some customers, however, also discovered that they could buy optional items from the Mogstation using Steam Wallet's local market pricing, and trade them to players in other markets. This is something you can no longer do directly in Steam, but was not forbidden by Square Enix's technical systems.

5) On Tuesday, 18 July, without any specific prior warning or notification, Square Enix adjusted the currency-specific rates in Steam for RU and BR customers to bring them into closer alignment with current currency exchange rates. The resulting increase in some cases nearly doubled (BR) or more-than-tripled (RU) the monthly subscription fees. Although the new fees are more closely aligned to the prices in USD/EUR/etc., they are much higher than going market rates for other competing MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft (which officially supports regional pricing). Customers who have existing subscription agreements in Steam will continue to get the prior rate until they renew.

5b) The FFXIV User Agreement does state that 30-days notice would be provided for subscription fee changes, however it only refers to the official prices on the FFXIV website, which did not change.

6) For many players, this sudden increase will mean they can no longer play the game, as it is priced way beyond their local market's purchasing power. In addition, this unannounced change comes on right on the heels of a major expansion; many customers would not have purchased the expansion if they had known in advance that the Steam prices would undergo such a large change. They are also no longer eligible to get a refund for the game and/or expansion, despite no longer being able to afford to keep playing due to this regional pricing change.


The concerns are:

- Why was Square Enix unable to provide 30-days notice prior to the adjustment of local market pricing in Steam?
- Is there any recourse for customers who purchased the expansion under the pretense of Steam's previous local currency rate, and now find themselves unable to afford the new Steam price?
- Will Square Enix implement an official regional pricing model that keeps the game accessible in markets (like RU and BR, among others) with less purchasing power?


(I'm not sure it was really necessary to summarize the whole thing... but maybe it will help someone better understand what's going on.)

[JunseiKei]

Well, this is an interesting topic, but something struck me while reading this post:

~snip~

Specifically on point 4b. I remember on Discord a month or so before Stormblood hit, a raid member linked something that directed you to an exact copy of the Mogstation with much lower pricing than SE's store. At the time, I told her not to link stuff like that again, it very much reeks of RMT and ToS violation and had reported the link to SE's customer service. Especially since the place claimed it was completely legit and even supported by SE. Now when you compare it to point 4b, we see the culprit.

I believe it's safe to say that these areas got screwed over for someone else's greed.

I want to sympathize for players stuck in this unfavorable outcome, but my original post kind of holds true here: who actually holds the finance in this situation? I don't think people got it what I was actually alluring to. Steam's Wallet is something under Steam, not Square Enix. If Steam sells something for a loss, then it's Steam that loses money. Not Square. If Square starts to lose money for it, they will adjust. They didn't adjust their subscription prices, so to speak; it's still $12.99 to $14.99 USD. All that changed was Steam's pricing through Steam Wallet. When looking on point 3, it really reads like while these currencies devalued, Steam Wallet failed to update appropriately, leading to this issue. This issue can happen on any currency that fluctuates a lot.

I really hope those requesting a refund do get it, but reading those two points alone, it really doesn't look favorable unless the ToS violation extends to Steam Wallet.

[DoppelShifter]

Snip

Well, here's the thing... said prices are controlled by the game's publisher, not Valve. Square Enix dictates the prices for Brazil and Russia, and then ignored them for 5 years with no change. Might have been an oversight, but this oversight was what brought the Russian and Brazilian player base we have here.
Also do note that at least for the Brazilians, the previous price for FFXIV (around 29BRL) was already more expensive than the official prices for WoW in Brazil (23,90), and only a bit lower than the Russian price (550RUB), so it's not like it's unsustainable (...unless Square Enix screwed up beautifully in their infrastructure and are having to spend far more money per player).

Also other games also use this kind of regional pricing directly through Steam, Warframe being one of them. It's still an opt-in process though, since games like Elite Dangerous do not use regional pricing, and Warframe itself didn't support it at first, but later included regional pricing.

So yeah, despite this involving the Steam storefront, all prices were being regulated (or ignored) by Square Enix, and it was their decision to remove the regional pricing (one has only to look at the price of the base game: it still uses regional pricing in Brazil and Russia; the base game + Stormblood costs 105,99BRL, which is far less than the ~200BRL that would correspond to the pricetag of 60USD).

We hope that this overall shady behavior serves as a justification for Valve to weight in just like they did in NMS and Arkham Knight and allow for refunds; or at least poke Square Enix saying "Yo folks, you have an impending PR nightmare here on this side. Either authorize the refunds or do something about it".

[Naunet]

When looking on point 3, it really reads like while these currencies devalued, Steam Wallet failed to update appropriately, leading to this issue.

No, that is not what happened, and people have explained this to you and others countless times in this thread.

[gustavray]

Why did steam do it for other games and services, such as wtfast and elder scrolls online then? Its not under steams power to choose pricing for services. It's square Enix's in this case.