Please allow Steam License holders to buy a standalone PC License.

[Kuya420]

I wish i would find the source, there was some protest some years ago when you were still able to play the windows version even if you had a steam account and that was also against their policy with the overlay as far as i remember and there was a statement from support where this reasoning was presented. But i really can't find it and obviously we don't have access to the contracts SE has with Steam where this would be probably written down.

All i know is that Steam doesn't allow this cause they make money over the wallet purchases and ofc over the expansionpack sells and even over the subscriptions over steam. So if you could cut them as a steam account user completely out that would mean they lose all profit they can make from the game which would be a obvious problem for a corporation that wants to make money. So they hold us basically as hostages and it's either all in or all out and SE probably also wouldn't like to lose a big platform like steam completely.

As i said i also made the mistake of buying the game over steam and i am not happy with it either. And i wish i could buy the game just for windows and be done with it. But that problem was a hot topic some years ago already and people screamed for this and nothing was done so...at some point you accept that you have to pay for your sins...

subscriptions over steam? uh no, the subscriptions go to SE, thats how all of my automatic payments are set up and have been since forever through mogstation, and maybe some people use steam gift cards or wallet funds to pay, but i think most just use funds in their checking accounts and pay SE directly

[Kuya420]

This is the part that really needs more information. It's unclear if they are actually going to line up the CD keys or not (is there any way to even see what code was registered to your SE account???). Or is it just checking to see if the Steam and target SE account simply have the full or free trial version of the game present.

This seems sloppily and hastily written. I'm hoping they aren't going to be running a CD check when it doesn't seem like its possible to confirm what CD key was applied on mog station (but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong if there's a way to find what was registered).

I know its easy to find the keys themselves on Steam, I'm talking about mog station specifically.

its the same way the SE launcher after you launch the game through steam knows whether or not you have access to the current expansion or not when you log in and can level up higher or create that new class, which makes me wonder, why does it sound like we are going to have to put in the keys AGAIN if this is already implemented? i dont know about you guys but i already have OTP as well, and i have steam guard(for what thats worth) so why, are they going this far with all of this? couldnt they just tell users to get OTP and if steam strongly suggest steam guard or 2fa or something?

or is the real goal for this to make is so you have to log in yourself once 6.1 hits for housing? is all of it going to be lottery? if so that doesnt make sense anyway, if not then maybe it does

[Absimiliard]

Not gonna lie. I would definitely re-purchase the game at this point. Steam has turned out to be far more trouble than it's worth as far as its odd, oft times broken interactions with FFXIV go.

[Ohnono]

But it does make the account more secure. If a Steam user falls for one of those "cactpot lottery" phising scams and gives away their FFXIV username, password and potentially OTP the hacker will still not be able to login because the game won't launch unless it's also from the correct Steam account.

You'll note that I said "demonstrable lie that it's for account security reasons." I did not say "This provides no security benefits." I'm saying any benefits from this are secondary to the actual intent of what they're doing here, and that they are being dishonest and using it as a scapegoat to effect change they are (probably) being forced into contractually. I consider any benefit irrelevant when we already have two factor authentication available anyway - which is optional, as any additional security measure should be. Why not this?

This is not a change that benefits players in any way whatsoever, it's something that's being forced unfairly and that was the point of my post.

[Canadane]

I have long suggested to every potential player I know to never buy the Steam version.
They just keep adding more and more reasons as to why not to buy it.

[caffe_macchiato]

But it does make the account more secure. If a Steam user falls for one of those "cactpot lottery" phising scams and gives away their FFXIV username, password and potentially OTP the hacker will still not be able to login because the game won't launch unless it's also from the correct Steam account.

OTP (two-factor authentication) exists to prevent theft. If someone’s silly enough to fall for a phishing page with their OTP, they can do the same with their Steam account as well. The change essentially gives FFXIV the potential to have four-factor authentication because it uses two passwords and two separate authenticator apps. That is the most secure design for a game I’ve ever seen, and is probably more secure then accessing your bank account or tax returns. But people have to consider whether that level of security is necessary for just a video game. Linking to Steam adds so much redundancy when 2FA is already sufficient for most use cases.

[Yaibatsu]

Well ,my Steam account Region is Europe but my SE Service Account is NA. Support told me that it has to be the same Region to match up. So that means I will be locked out of my FF account in March. Bloody great.

[BristolRuss]

OTP (two-factor authentication) exists to prevent theft. If someone’s silly enough to fall for a phishing page with their OTP, they can do the same with their Steam account as well. The change essentially gives FFXIV the potential to have four-factor authentication because it uses two passwords and two separate authenticator apps. That is the most secure design for a game I’ve ever seen, and is probably more secure then accessing your bank account or tax returns. But people have to consider whether that level of security is necessary for just a video game. Linking to Steam adds so much redundancy when 2FA is already sufficient for most use cases.

Those 'cactpot lottery' scams bring you to a fake forum page, where when you log in they steal your credentials. These forums never ask you for your Steam credentials so they would have no way to steal those except though a different phising attempt. This change does make the game more secure for Steam users.

[VirusOnline]

Like people noted this is most likely a contractual issue between Valve and SE. It's the same for other MMORPGs as well, back in my ESO days I remember that the ZOS dev's commented that they really would like to offer that (ESO has the same problem) but that Valve doesn't allow that. Never, ever buy a game with an online account system (like MMORPGs) on Steam.

They really should add a HUGE disclaimer on the account creation page, but that will never happen ...

Right
How it probably happens is Steam buys keys from SE
These keys now are property of Steam
SE cannot touch those keys because of contract and ownership of said key belongs to Steam
Steam owned keys can only be launched from Steam authorization
SE owned keys can only be launched and authorized from SE launcher

[RobynDaBank]

I have long suggested to every potential player I know to never buy the Steam version.
They just keep adding more and more reasons as to why not to buy it.

I have a bunch of problems while playing the official Windows version when it comes to payments because of my country. Essentially I can never subscribe to the game and my partner buys game time cards for me using his address. Sometimes I wonder if I made a bad choice not going through Steam as perhaps they would actually take care of my currency and payments somehow.

Seems Steam comes with its own issues, lol...