Seriously SE???

[Avenger]

I'd like to see the download edition be cheaper than the disc edition (why are downloads just as expensive when no physical product needs to be manufactured, stored, or shipped?) but I want the physical CE anyway, assuming I can afford the price and storage space!

Since the original poster was comparing pricing with FFXI's, it's worth noting that Chains of Promathia was $29.99 in 2004 - about $38 in 2015 dollars - so FFXIV's standalone expansion pricing is starting about where FFXI's did. Not to mention that on the PS2 FFXI was $99 since it included/required the HDD...

[Welsper59]

I'd like to see the download edition be cheaper than the disc edition (why are downloads just as expensive when no physical product needs to be manufactured, stored, or shipped?) but I want the physical CE anyway, assuming I can afford the price and storage space!

The download editions are often a matter of argument. To be fair, there IS cost to hosting and distributing downloads of a product, a cost that physical copies do not have (because the cost is in production of said physical copy). Enough of a cost to make it worth the same price tag? Probably not, but that's how it is right now.

[Gilthas]

I'd like to see the download edition be cheaper than the disc edition (why are downloads just as expensive when no physical product needs to be manufactured, stored, or shipped?)

Physical and digital games often cost the same because otherwise brick and mortar stores would refuse to stock them.

EDIT: Now that I've caught up on the discussion, holy ****, the amount of whiny that I skipped.

Only two things to say:

1. The obvious: assuming that monthly fees have been pure profit for SE is at the very least asinine. No one knows how much money SE is making, though given that SE's finances have been getting better I think we can assume a nice profit. For now at least.

2. The most important part: I see so many people expecting SE to put all the profits made from FFXIV back into FFXIV. If SE had to do that (hell, if any company had to do that) they would just shut down the game.