PETITION: Regarding FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam Version (Mar. 8)

[Tragoedia]

These are some very disturbing news.

I sub to this post because I am afraid this will end up like the other horror stories I have read here and on reddit.

At least leave it be the way it is now, its like... steam isn't losing any money, since they have us hostages to them, and people still buy from them.

On the other hand, if they keep up with these changes, they definitely will lose some income, imo.

PS: i don't like the feeling of being hostage to Steam, i should have known better. never again.

I hope SE helps us with this.

[Maneesha]

You're allowed to express your concern, but at the correct entity. S-E, in all likelihood, is contractually obligated to adhere to Steam's policies. No amount of petitioning is going to convince S-E to break contractual law and rescind this decision. If this decision causes problems that many of you fear, it is Steam that you must appeal to, not S-E.


This is a Steam problem. Not an S-E problem. I really wish everyone complaining would understand this.

So the entity that has control over my account and whom i pay for subscription is the wrong one?...

[James1o1o]

You're allowed to express your concern, but at the correct entity. S-E, in all likelihood, is contractually obligated to adhere to Steam's policies. No amount of petitioning is going to convince S-E to break contractual law and rescind this decision. If this decision causes problems that many of you fear, it is Steam that you must appeal to, not S-E.


This is a Steam problem. Not an S-E problem. I really wish everyone complaining would understand this.

You're completely wrong. Steam does not require developers to adhere to any form of DRM.

[Myosotis_A]

Signed,

the only reason to use steam with FF14 for me is the paypal option. Which I can't believe they haven't implemented in mogstation.

I'd like the option to migrate my account from steam if this is the case.

Recently, it's like they are making an effort to alienate the user base.

Addendum: With how broken payment is in the mogstation, I can only hope the steam client works fine, reinstalling is not that big a deal, but the issues with the client are well known. If they don't then, I guess, I'm boned and I'll just have to move on. After the Activision/Blizzard garbage, I have no loyalty towards any gaming company nowadays, I'll drop Square Enix and FF14 like a used napkin without a single drop of remorse, if it comes to that.

[KaosuDrake]

As of right now Steam counts as a PC version of the game and there is no way even if we wanted to get a regular PC version and add it to our account. Instead we would need to get a new account and restart from scratch.

[Vulcwen]

Signed.
I think it's bullshit in the first place that Steam is considered a separate platform, but not really, so you're stuck on steam unless you want to play on PS4 instead. Make steam a fully recognized platform and allow players to get a standard PC version if they want to get off steam for whatever reason.

[Lachesia]

This isn't a petition for SquareEnix, it's not SE that made the policy demanding that the launcher be used, it's Steam. If you want to seriously get the attention to Steam that you don't want to use their unstable, resource hogging, memory leaking launcher, then you have to tell STEAM that. SquareEnix is complying with the policy that Steam created that demands you use their launcher to play any of the games you've acquired through Steam.

[Lachesia]

You're completely wrong. Steam does not require developers to adhere to any form of DRM.

Did you even read the announcement? In case you didn't here's a refresher:

In order to align closely with Steam policies, we plan to implement a restricted login check process for Steam service account users.

[Affected]
FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam Version

[Changes]
Current:
FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam version clients can currently be opened directly without going through the Steam application and is possible to use the regular Windows version client application for Steam version service accounts.

After the change:
For Steam version service accounts, the FINAL FANTASY XIV client application will need to be started up from the Steam application's Play button. Any other method of direct startup will no longer be available.

[Time and Date of Implementation]
Late March 2019 (tentative)

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

---

SquareEnix has a contractual agreement with Steam to follow and adhere to their policy guidelines in order to use the platform for their product. So No, Eli85 is correct. Steam does have a push for this. And quite literally the push is because while they make perhaps 20% revenue from SE for providing a platform for their game to be distributed (like Gamestop, Walmart, and other places you can buy SE products), they get more of their revenue through their advertisement and sale of OTHER games. Steam wants to continue that trend by forcing you to see 'alternative' games with the launcher (that big window that says 'NEW ON STEAM!' every time you open the dang thing.) This policy is motivated entirely by Steam wanting to keep their own cashflow going by getting those 'click tickets' and showing off other games in their arsenal outside of SE (Aion, Legion II, etc.)

If SE doesn't adhere to the agreement they made with Steam, Steam has the right to remove their product from their 'store', and that in and of itself means that Steam-account users are screwed, because you can no longer launch the game except from Steam and if Steam doesn't allow the game to be there because of a breach of terms, it will no longer be a platform available to gamers.

Square needs to allow us to CONVERT our Steam accounts into Basic Windows/PC accounts, or consider PC/Steam to be one in the same and stop double-selling the same product, on the same platform with a different access point.

[LunaP]

Did you even read the announcement? In case you didn't here's a refresher:

In order to align closely with Steam policies, we plan to implement a restricted login check process for Steam service account users.

[Affected]
FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam Version

[Changes]
Current:
FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam version clients can currently be opened directly without going through the Steam application and is possible to use the regular Windows version client application for Steam version service accounts.

After the change:
For Steam version service accounts, the FINAL FANTASY XIV client application will need to be started up from the Steam application's Play button. Any other method of direct startup will no longer be available.

[Time and Date of Implementation]
Late March 2019 (tentative)

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

---

SquareEnix has a contractual agreement with Steam to follow and adhere to their policy guidelines in order to use the platform for their product. So No, Eli85 is correct. Steam does have a push for this.

I think you both misunderstood eachother.

The policy refer's to steams recent revamp of HOW game clients should be accessed, to ensure they're going through the steam auth servers prior to loading, nothing to do with the actual licensing option people are discussing, so in that term the previous person was still incorrect in that aspect.

As far as bringing it to Steam directly, it has, there's a huge discussion on the steam forums as well in case you missed them (based on your previous response) , however the main issue being discussed is bringing this to SE about trading off platforms in the trade off of either buying a new key to xfer their character or starting over fresh to avoid future (possible) issues with steam. I see no harm in the community providing feedback and requesting support on a matter that concerns many vs few, albeit with the minimal attention the NA forums get, it would require far more input on the thread to raise awareness to the higher ups, but vs complain to a single side its best to submit to both.

[Lachesia]

I think you both misunderstood eachother.

The policy refer's to steams recent revamp of HOW game clients should be accessed, to ensure they're going through the steam auth servers prior to loading, nothing to do with the actual licensing option people are discussing, so in that term the previous person was still incorrect in that aspect.

As far as bringing it to Steam directly, it has, there's a huge discussion on the steam forums as well in case you missed them (based on your previous response) , however the main issue being discussed is bringing this to SE about trading off platforms in the trade off of either buying a new key to xfer their character or starting over fresh to avoid future (possible) issues with steam. I see no harm in the community providing feedback and requesting support on a matter that concerns many vs few, albeit with the minimal attention the NA forums get, it would require far more input on the thread to raise awareness to the higher ups, but vs complain to a single side its best to submit to both.

I have been on the steam forums, so the assumption that I missed this discussion being there is a moot point. ( https://steamcommunity.com/app/39210...scn=1552059156 This is my post about it.)

The issue is still more proprietary to Steam and their policies for login and launch processes than it is with SE adhering to their agreement with Steam. I agree they need to give us the option to convert or consider the PC/Steam versions interchangeable, but this is still a low blow from Steam enforcing a ludicrous policy just so they can have their own product pushed.