Steam payment HUGE price increase!

[MonstaCado]

Also it has come to my attention that apparently it was announced this was going to happen in an interview around May.

Oh, really? Can you share the link or at least name the source?

I dunno if it was or not

Okay, nvm.

Seriously, though, in what kind of a twisted world informing your clients about a price change via some "interview", that nobody even heard about, is considered a decent practice?

[aekh]

Also it has come to my attention that apparently it was announced this was going to happen in an interview around May.

Doesn't change the fact that it was never oficially announced directly to the players through official means (Lodestone, e-mail, etc.).

This is not the kind of information that only gets mentioned briefly on an interview. I don't think people would be very happy if SE decided to change the base subscription price and only mentioned it on a random interview.

[Drakanoth]

I don't know how much it'll impact SE, but at least it's making me even less interested in looking at reviews at this rate.

I'm not defending SE on this, they should have given warning beforehand.. but I personally just find it annoying when people bombard game/expansion reviews because of bad PR. Nothing wrong with the product itself.

Were non-Steam players from Russia and Brazil paying this updated subscription amount earlier?

We aren't bombarding the GAME itself with bad reviews though, just the move from the company. If you read the rising reviews on steam you'll see this.

[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.)

[Naunet]

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.

It's not a loophole. SE had to deliberately choose to implement Regional pricing in the first place.

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)"

Can we get an actual source for this instead of an "apparent" "interview"?

[Nezia]

I was wondering, since some players advocate that SE is in their right doing this and is not breaking their own ToS in increasing prices without warning, then would it be the same if they decided to do a price 'adjust' for USD paying players in adjusting USD to Yen at some point in time?

[Ailis]

I was wondering, since some players advocate that SE is in their right doing this and is not breaking their own ToS in increasing prices without warning, then would it be the same if they decided to do a price 'adjust' for USD paying players if they decided to adjust USD to Yen at some point?

Probably not because it would be affecting them and not random people they can't sympathize with in the internet.

[Ckrownz]

I assume that someone sent a new ticket (I presuppose this because people are sending their responses a lot), so anything new ?

[Nezia]

I assume that someone sent a new ticket (I presuppose this because people are sending their responses a lot), so anything new ?

From what I've seen from people that talked to me and people who posted on FB and even here, there are 2 kinds of tickets people are making:

1 - simple asking for a refund: this one has always ended with a decline, since from steam own ToS when selling games, there are very well strict conditions for someone to ask for a refund, and since SE waited exactly 1 month to increase the prices asking for a refund won't do much with don't some argument.

2 - ask for a refund alleging that the game publisher broke their own ToS(4.1 paragraph) and thus you can no longer play the game: People doing this kind of tickets are usually receiving responses like "we will be sending this issue for a proper investigation, we thank you for your patience.", not a denial nor acceptance, which I understand, since Valve is not SE they have no business being up to SE ToS and stuff, then they need to make a proper investigation in order to take a position.

"YOU ARE DREAMMING IF YOU THINK STEAM WILL GIVE YOU A REFUND", nope, I'm not, it has happened before, namely No man's sky and the latest batman game, where even no longer being in the traditional refund policy, Valve understood that the buyers had been tricked by the publishers and either did not receive what they paid for(no man's sky) or could not play the game they paid for(batman).

[Ckrownz]

sorry for the snip.

Do you think that this enrage of the community will bring fruits ?