Please offer a conversion from Steam to PC version for Steam users.

[Callinon]

I'm curious here for the people who have this visceral reaction to the entire concept of Steam... why did you buy the game through Steam? I mean.. I understand the sales are attractive, but if Steam really does claw its way into your nightmares I'm a little confused as to why you'd bother.

[Nixxe]

I'm curious here for the people who have this visceral reaction to the entire concept of Steam... why did you buy the game through Steam? I mean.. I understand the sales are attractive, but if Steam really does claw its way into your nightmares I'm a little confused as to why you'd bother.

Prior to SE informing us you'd have to buy HW from Steam if you bought ARR from Steam, there was no indication that you were signing a blood pact with Steam by buying your key from them. Given that a lot of players, myself included, likely got the software directly from SE by downloading it for the free trial and then just shopped around for the best deal on the full version, there was no reason to expect anything unusual about buying it from Steam.

[Nihility]

the game lets you login to different consoles as long as you have activated product keys for them so i imagine you could buy a regular pc version for the key and be able to just login without going through steam.
Expansion time should be the perfect opportunity to do just that as well

Honestly should take it as a lesson to not get anything but indie games on steam since they force that extra layer of programming that makes "steam games" non-functional without the platform

Prior to SE informing us you'd have to buy HW from Steam if you bought ARR from Steam, there was no indication that you were signing a blood pact with Steam by buying your key from them. Given that a lot of players, myself included, likely got the software directly from SE by downloading it for the free trial and then just shopped around for the best deal on the full version, there was no reason to expect anything unusual about buying it from Steam.

It's how steam works. Every game released through the steam platform has to be a special steam version that won't function without it and uses different registration codes as though it's an entirely different thing from a PC/MAC/PS4 version
S-E probably doesn't really care but hands are tied because contract with Valve
Games are cheaper through Steam for a reason

[Mnemyx]

S-E probably doesn't really care but hands are tied because contract with Valve
Games are cheaper through Steam for a reason

You know that FFXIV base game and expansions rarely go on sale on Steam, right? And otherwise maintains the same pricing as the Square Enix store. Other places sell the FFXIV PC key cheaper more often throughout the year than Steam does.

For ARR alone: https://steamdb.info/app/39210/ v. https://camelcamelcamel.com/Final-Fa...uct/B008SBZD9G

[Nixxe]

It's how steam works. Every game released through the steam platform has to be a special steam version that won't function without it and uses different registration codes as though it's an entirely different thing from a PC/MAC/PS4 version
S-E probably doesn't really care but hands are tied because contract with Valve
Games are cheaper through Steam for a reason

Yeah, but that's not how this game worked for the past 5 years. I never even installed the game through Steam. If it had worked like that immediately, I would have at least had an opportunity to try to get a refund on the Steam version and buy a normal key or, at the very least, start a new account that wasn't bound to Steam before I had invested any real time in it. Now we're just stuck.

[Lemage]

Once, while I was playing through steam the game crashed. Upon trying to launch the game, steam didn't think xiv was installed and wanted me to download the entire thing again. Since then I've just been launching it directly from the .exe.

Same thing happened to me which also led me to open it directly, the kicker is with my internet speed here in australia, it took 6 days to redownload, and during those 6 days my internet was unusable for anything else.

5.4KM from Exchange on Copper ADSL, best we can get in the area.

At least on other MMO's this is not a problem.... Except for ESO when the exact same thing happened and caused chaos, DONT DO IT SQUARE PLS

[Aramina]

I'm curious here for the people who have this visceral reaction to the entire concept of Steam... why did you buy the game through Steam? I mean.. I understand the sales are attractive, but if Steam really does claw its way into your nightmares I'm a little confused as to why you'd bother.

Because it was gifted to me and I never had to run it through Steam. I don't mind still having to get all the expansions via Steam (even though I miss out on deals), but I don't want to have to log into Steam before I can log into the game... especially since ESO added this and it has been nothing but trouble. I am not going to continue subbing to a game if I begin to have unreliable service.

[TaleraRistain]

I think they should allow Steam users to de-couple from Steam and have some path to transfer to a normal PC license. Barring that, allow both types of keys to be used on the same account.

As for the authentication server issues, I've been playing through Steam since not long after launch and never had an issue where it was Steam's servers keeping me from logging in. I also play many other games through Steam and have never had an issue. It may be regional. I'm in the US. But it has been a solid platform for gaming for me.

[Phii]

Signed. I wish I knew better back wen I first bought the game. I don't want to rub steam in the background for all eternity. Release me from the steam curse SE. I will PAY you. I will buy the whole game over again.

[Maneesha]

the game lets you login to different consoles as long as you have activated product keys for them so i imagine you could buy a regular pc version for the key and be able to just login without going through steam.

This exactly is not possible with different Windows version keys.(steam/standard SE version). That's why we are having this discussions.Up until now we had the freedom to play with the windows client and could ignore the steam client, so nobody complained. Now after 5 years its changing and we cant simply refund the game, even if we could will need a completely new account and we will lose all your progress within the game. That's why we are asking for "account migration" or the ability to enter the "non steam" windows version key into our already existing accounts. Like i mentioned in another thread, this is a good timing for us and SE, since they only need to include the original game + all already existing expansion within the new one which is right around the corner.

No SE hands are not tied, both SE and Steam are benefiting from this contract ,but SE is not a small time publisher(also the steam player base is not insignificant, i think SE would like to keep it) and Epic Games are also trying to compete with Steam with their own launcher and might be an alternative for SE, but not the only option.

But lets wait and see how things will develop, maybe we wont have any issues with Steam launcher.