Steam payment HUGE price increase!

[Adachi_Ame]

I mean from me, I see both sides of the argument. I mean technically wasn't the sub system exploiting a loophole through steam in a sense? But Yes the lack of communication and the timing of this was very bad.

[DoppelShifter]

I mean from me, I see both sides of the argument. I mean technically wasn't the sub system exploiting a loophole through steam in a sense? But Yes the lack of communication and the timing of this was very bad.

No, it was not a loophole. Regional pricing is used by multiple companies to make prices more attractive in regions where the income is lower and people have less money available for entertainment. That way they can cater to players that normally wouldn't pay for the game's original price, and end up getting increased revenue when you sum up the whole player base.

The thing is that Square Enix's implementation of regional prices was always half-assed, and instead of tuning it for better (like other companies are doing), they just eliminated it from subscriptions, which was at least a few steps backward.

[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

[Ckrownz]

I mean from me, I see both sides of the argument. I mean technically wasn't the sub system exploiting a loophole through steam in a sense? But Yes the lack of communication and the timing of this was very bad.

Again... steam have a region lock as far as I know, so its probably impossible to exploit this. And I'm almost sure that the SE have one as well, so sounds like something that did not happen, specially nobody here was successful in confirm this, on the other hand, on WoW people actually talked that was completlely possible.

Edit : I almost forgot to put the reminder : This discussion is not about fairness

[Adachi_Ame]

Also it has come to my attention that apparently it was announced this was going to happen in an interview around May. "They made the announcement around the end of May from what I read Because they KNEW it was a problem but they said they couldn't get Steam to fix it at the time Because it was on Steam's end the problem was according to SE (I dunno if it was or not)"

[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.

[Ckrownz]

Also it has come to my attention that apparently it was announced this was going to happen in an interview around May. "They made the announcement around the end of May from what I read Because they KNEW it was a problem but they said they couldn't get Steam to fix it at the time Because it was on Steam's end the problem was according to SE (I dunno if it was or not)"

Oh wow a interview, what a great way to warn your player base

[Adachi_Ame]

Oh wow a interview, what a great way to warn your player base

Say what you will, it was a interview on video that directly address this. So saying it was completely snuck under the table would be wrong, I think this more an issue of not proper spread of information. Yes, it probably should have also been announced more than there, but I have to question the ones interviewing, not properly making sure this information was made public.
EDIT: Look I know you are angry, but do not direct at me, isn't some information better than no information?

[Boreowl]

Also it has come to my attention that apparently it was announced this was going to happen in an interview around May. "They made the announcement around the end of May from what I read Because they KNEW it was a problem but they said they couldn't get Steam to fix it at the time Because it was on Steam's end the problem was according to SE (I dunno if it was or not)"

Do you perhaps have a link to that interview? I'd like to see it as well and share it with some friends.
If they really talked about price adjustment on Steam in an interview in May, then it's really a shame none of us paid attention to it... Still, they could've spread this information more openly, imo...

[Ckrownz]

EDIT: Look I know you are angry, but do not direct at me, isn't some information better than no information?

I'm not angry, just trying to be sarcastic, laugh is better than crying in this kind of situation. But I still think that this is not enough to warn your player base. Btw can you link the interview ?