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

[Yodada]

I dont want to defend Square here but do we know which Contracts are existing between Square and Valve? I mean Steam/Valve are well known fur abusing market share power be it Region Blocking, you are not allowed to sell your game cheaper on other platforms clauses in contracts etc. Maybe Square cant offer the Option to Buyout from Steam even if they wanted.

At least some recognition of this issue from the official side would be helpful. Where are the CMs when we need them.

[Youkulm]

I dont want to defend Square here but do we know which Contracts are existing between Square and Valve? I mean Steam/Valve are well known fur abusing market share power be it Region Blocking, you are not allowed to sell your game cheaper on other platforms clauses in contracts etc. Maybe Square cant offer the Option to Buyout from Steam even if they wanted.

At least some recognition of this issue from the official side would be helpful. Where are the CMs when we need them.

Yeah sadly we know nothing. They've said nothing. The only news we've ever gotten is on the lodestone saying these things are coming not the why or how it will effect the players. AFIAK There is still some people that cannot login to their accounts via steam because of the change yesterday and I feel bad for them. Possibly years and years of playtime lost.

I just wish they'd tell us what is going on. Not everyone has a completely uncomplicated situation which was demonstrated yesterday when a lot of us couldn't get into our accounts.

[Johners]

I dont want to defend Square here but do we know which Contracts are existing between Square and Valve? I mean Steam/Valve are well known fur abusing market share power be it Region Blocking, you are not allowed to sell your game cheaper on other platforms clauses in contracts etc. Maybe Square cant offer the Option to Buyout from Steam even if they wanted.

At least some recognition of this issue from the official side would be helpful. Where are the CMs when we need them.

Valve's contracts are no different to those you'll sign when publishing to Xbox, PlayStation or Switch (or previous Nintendo platforms). Region blocking is something publishers like, especially for regionally priced games. There's many games made available cheaper for poorer regions but those purchases are then tied to that region and often miss language packs etc that aren't spoken there. The internet age made it easier to find loopholes in regional pricing/distribution so due to this, the modern platforms had to adapt. Price level agreements are to also stop new platforms from finding ways of undercutting the existing players but Valve aren't unique in this regard.

More importantly, the nature of these contracts is usually under a non-disclosure agreement so it'll be highly unlikely they say anything. As for buying out this arrangement, given the nature of it, it's more likely Valve buyout the entire PC distribution of FFXIV than SE pay Valve so they can migrate the game.

[Jojoya]

I dont want to defend Square here but do we know which Contracts are existing between Square and Valve? I mean Steam/Valve are well known fur abusing market share power be it Region Blocking, you are not allowed to sell your game cheaper on other platforms clauses in contracts etc. Maybe Square cant offer the Option to Buyout from Steam even if they wanted.

At least some recognition of this issue from the official side would be helpful. Where are the CMs when we need them.

SE can always force the issue with Steam when it comes time to renew their contract. If Steam doesn't want to relent, then SE can choose to not renew the contract and offer Steam users a standalone PC license at that point since Steam would no longer be supported.

It would be interesting to find out what percentage of active account licenses were purchased through Steam in the first place, and then what percentage of those owners only purchased their game because it was available through Steam and would not have purchased it otherwise.

Yeah sadly we know nothing. They've said nothing. The only news we've ever gotten is on the lodestone saying these things are coming not the why or how it will effect the players. AFIAK There is still some people that cannot login to their accounts via steam because of the change yesterday and I feel bad for them. Possibly years and years of playtime lost.

I just wish they'd tell us what is going on. Not everyone has a completely uncomplicated situation which was demonstrated yesterday when a lot of us couldn't get into our accounts.

They did tell us the why and how, though. That information was in the Feb. 9th announcement. The why was to address security and fraud issues being experienced on accounts with Steam licenses. The how was players who failed to properly link their accounts would no longer be able to play the game.

What they couldn't say is exactly which players would end up negatively affected. Now it's a matter of Support compiling information from those who are currently unable to play so they can pinpoint any remaining issues in the linking process - or determine that the lack of access is due to the same security and fraud issues the change is intended to address.

More importantly, the nature of these contracts is usually under a non-disclosure agreement so it'll be highly unlikely they say anything. As for buying out this arrangement, given the nature of it, it's more likely Valve buyout the entire PC distribution of FFXIV than SE pay Valve so they can migrate the game.

That would be a mistake on SE's part to let Valve buyout all rights to PC distribution. They'd lose all their PC customers who want nothing to do with Valve and Steam.

[Youkulm]

They did tell us the why and how, though. That information was in the Feb. 9th announcement.

I'm sorry, no they didn't. I'm glad it answered all your questions and your process was completely uncomplicated but it wasn't like that for everyone else. We had concerns that went unanswered for weeks about the process and those concerns were 100% founded by the issues people have been having.

Users had to resort to contacting support to get further information on their concerns. Concerns that should have been addressed in the announcement, not in an email to a user desperate for answers the dev team wont give them.

I digress: problems from the issues of the linking are irrelevant now. Not asking for a rollback, it is what it is. I'm asking to be able to buy a PC License. The purpose of this thread has not and will not change.

This is the "FF14 hill" that I'll die on and no one is going to convince me to stop bumping this thread until we get a response. Even if it means constantly repeating myself to people who can't be bothered to read the concerns in the thread.