Minion Mishap and unsatisfying customer service

[Enkidoh]

The reason the bonus codes with merchandise have expiry dates is to deter onsellers of the codes/merchandise who buy the item from SE then sell it again for a profit on a third party website like eBay, often the code being unused but sold repeatedly (this is why Mogstation item purchases have no expiry). An example of why this was put into place was the bonus items that came with the standard and collector's editions of FFXIV 1.0 (Garlond Goggles and Onion Helm respecitively). After 1.0's failure and shutdown SE ordered retailers with unsold stock to return them to SE for disposal, but, the codes remain useable with ARR, thus this has resulted in sealed copies of 1.0 going for absolutely ridiculous amounts on eBay, especially the standard edition despite the game itself now being totally useless.

No doubt SE wants to avoid a repeat of this, so ig item codes that come with physical merchandise have a limited window to be redeemed (generally about two years after that item's release). It's annoying, but it's life I'm afraid.