Stop Online Store Items

[Alicie]

People here and in the community will get mad every time its said, but the Cash Shop does get re-invested in the game. Its basically the only way they can get direct funding that isn't devoured at a corporate level for other projects. XIV is operated on an intentional budgetary deficit with the expectation that the cash shop will make up for development and operating costs that SQEX corporate saddles the game with.

That said, the OP doesn't really have much a point.

There's not more items, it is effectively the same volume as it has been for years, we simply have longer patch cycles so it feels like more as the content drops are further apart, while cash shop updates retain the same pace they've always had. 4-6 things per patch has been the norm for years now, but the longer individual patch cycles make it seem like there's more cash shop updates "per patch" than there used to be.

If money from cash shop was reinvested into the game, why do we even get longer patch cycle in the first place, and why we get excuses like "not enough funding" for lack of Forked tower difficulty modes, while from SE's reports FFXIV generates most of the profit?

[LaylaTsarra]

Stuff on the store isn't account wide they can keep it. Rarely get stuff there unless it's a cheap emote (which should also be account wide) for one of my alts.

[Alicie]

People here and in the community will get mad every time its said, but the Cash Shop does get re-invested in the game. Its basically the only way they can get direct funding that isn't devoured at a corporate level for other projects. XIV is operated on an intentional budgetary deficit with the expectation that the cash shop will make up for development and operating costs that SQEX corporate saddles the game with.

That said, the OP doesn't really have much a point.

There's not more items, it is effectively the same volume as it has been for years, we simply have longer patch cycles so it feels like more as the content drops are further apart, while cash shop updates retain the same pace they've always had. 4-6 things per patch has been the norm for years now, but the longer individual patch cycles make it seem like there's more cash shop updates "per patch" than there used to be.

But they are charging subscription at the same rate as before patch cycle was extended. They don't suddenly charge 20% less. So why we should get less in-game items just because of that?
Besides, lately in-game rewards include only mediocre sets and emotes that nobody really cares about while everything nice goes into store.

[FudoMyoo]

Why are you bothered by fluff items in a game?

/Shrug

[Alicie]

Why are you bothered by fluff items in a game?

/Shrug

Because I pay for game, DLC and sub to have access exactly to these fluff items. But I'm still asked to pay for majority of actually good items.
All the items aside from the very endgame gear are fluff items, doesn't means that we need to be charged for them.

[Kirutsuki]

It's weird for me cause I also play a little game called Monster Hunter, and not too long ago during Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak the devs decided to release
a purchaseable weapon designs on the Steam store. Here were the results;

The first design they released was a incredibly cool design everyone wanted. So the reception was badly received, everyone started to review bomb the game because of
it, since in the past the game would give weapon designs like these through the in-game event quests. Which I think 14 could learn alot from.

The second design they added were much more sillier designs, sure people wanted them, but because they were silly they didn't feel like they were something you had to have either.
So the reception was overall more positive since people didn't feel like they were missing out on something insanely cool.

The Online Store in 14 has slowly been going in to the direction of adding things people actually want on their character, and thats the root problem.
We never cared that there were these butt ass ugly whale mounts for 30-40bucks, because they were both silly and kinda ugly. And also they were obvious memes about being a whale.
But my first big no-no was when Shadow Wolf was added in there. It is not a good idea to add something so cool in the store especially when the game itself lacks reasons to want to play the game.

And it sucks that Yoshi-P seemingly has zero control over whats going on in the store, and the devs have to just make it happen since they're on a payroll.

So, my simplest solution to the online store is to just limit the content in the store to things that are on the sillier or uglier side.
In fact, I would much rather have them list Adventure Plates in the Online Store as purchaseable items and remove all mounts and make the mounts accessible in-game.
but now that I said that they will probably add Adventure Plates into the online store and do nothing about the mounts.

See the contrast is that Adventure Plates don't necessarily add anything of real value to your gaming experience as opposed to Mounts or cool Glamour.

[ViinaS]

Thing is, the reason why they keep adding cosmetics, mounts and other stuff to online store is because it makes money and it's also the main reason why subscription fee haven't being increased, same thing is with price of the game and expansions that they keep being reasonable.

Just image, if online store where removed then subscription fee could being increased to 20€ or 25€ for standard subscription and 15€ or 20€ for entry subscription, while FFXIV starter pack could being increased to 50€ while each expansion being increased to 50€.
And for current complete edition could being increased to like 100€ or 150€.

So yeah, i rather want them keeping online store and not increasing subscription fee while keeping price of the game it self reasonable.


Oh and not forget that there is these promotion campaign items that can't being obtaned from in-game and from online store at all, which are even worse then items in online store when quite often these promotion campaigns aren't even available in most of countries.

Here is a two good examples:
Back in 2024 there was Gong Cha promotion campaign that you able to get Porxie King mount but it was nothing more then huge mess and most of players in Europe didn't even able to get this mount due to only 4 countries had Gong Cha stores.

And back in 2016 there was a promotion campaign where you did able to get housemaid's uniform set (note: i'm talking about the original Housemaid's dress, not the loyal housemaid's dress that got added to the online store) and this promotion campaign was so bad that in Europe only people in UK where able to get housemaid's uniform set and Square Enix actually had to make changes to this promotion campaign by making a alternative way to get housemaid's uniform set for rest of Europe players.

Nope, they don't get to increase the sub price for no reason if content quality and content cadance gets worse.
If anything paying the same price for 4-5 and not 3 month patches nowadays is already "well paid", plus most content is just the same again and again with a new coat of paint.

And we know FFXIV makes SE much of the money they get.

Collaboration promotions being an absolute mess is also no excuse, that's SEs own fault.

And as for seasonal items: You are just used to them being added to the online shop. Y'know what other games do? They give you those old rewards whenever the event comes around yb doing some repeatable quests / dailies.... That change each year.

No, for the effort, or rather lack of effort we see nowadays SE does not deserve more money.
Sure, they can try raising sub price but many will not pay that, with their relationship to the game already being strained.

[Khryseis_Astra]

So, my simplest solution to the online store is to just limit the content in the store to things that are on the sillier or uglier side.
In fact, I would much rather have them list Adventure Plates in the Online Store as purchaseable items and remove all mounts and make the mounts accessible in-game.
but now that I said that they will probably add Adventure Plates into the online store and do nothing about the mounts.

See the contrast is that Adventure Plates don't necessarily add anything of real value to your gaming experience as opposed to Mounts or cool Glamour.

Shadow Keeper was a travesty for 2 reasons: one, people were expecting that to possibly be a BLU reward for Eden, and two, it doesn’t play the raid music! lol

That being said, I don’t mind the mounts that are new creations not pulled straight from the game being in the store. But, saying this as someone who absolutely loves adventure plates, portraits and framer’s kits, there’s no way that’s going to generate the same amount of revenue as a mount. I love them, but I wouldn’t pay real money for them! They are right where they should be as an in-game reward.

Now the Tactics stuff… I would’ve preferred some kind of in-game event. But what I was really hoping for was that the in-game gear from the Ivalice raids would’ve been made dyeable (with both channels!) in time for the game’s release.

While I understand the frustration with certain things in the shop, the stuff that’s there needs to be desirable enough that people feel it’s worth the extra cost on top of already paying a sub. But aside from mounts, they have been getting better at things like glam having very similar in-game versions.

[Ajisaii]

Shadow Keeper was a travesty for 2 reasons: one, people were expecting that to possibly be a BLU reward for Eden

This is a good thing, BLU mage doesn't deserve cool rewards. I'd rather swipe my card than play an old savage raid on easy mode but with spells I had to farm by spamming dungeons.

[FudoMyoo]

Because I pay for game, DLC and sub to have access exactly to these fluff items. But I'm still asked to pay for majority of actually good items.
All the items aside from the very endgame gear are fluff items, doesn't means that we need to be charged for them.

You are paying for basic contents, (lore, quarterly patch updates exclusive PvP & raid mounts), also not forgetting mainly for SE server maintenance.

Fluff items on mogsation are additional items that you(we) don't have to pay for if we "dont want" to. They are purely for glam and for glam/blings only. Beating on this dead horse is only bringing miserly to yourself. IMO get over it and be happy, ya?