Heavensward Not a System Time Buy? How?

[BreathlessTao]

...I'm still surprised to see threads made about this issue. ARR has been the same since launch and they had said it beforehand.
The service account is universal, it stores your game data regardless of the platform you play on. The collector's edition and preorder bonuses are account-based, so you only add them once and they'll be available for all your characters.
If you want to play on different platforms though, you have to buy the game on all your platforms - cross-platform playing is one thing; cross purchase is another. If you purchase a game for the PC, do you ever get an X1/PS4 version chucked at you for free? (This is what monochromicorn was saying, I believe.) You don't, because the software itself is different, made for different systems, and that has to be paid. Also, with the online accounts (Microsoft's and Sony's as well), you need to register your game to those accounts as well, it can't happen just via some gamesaves in the cloud. Also, it's just my guess, but I have a feeling we'll see a separate .exe file for the expansion (much like Sims have been doing it), so even in that sense it'll end up being separate.

Yes, it sucks having to pay twice or even more, but that's how it is as of now and it's nothing new.

(Also not sure why something like this is posted in the Website Feedback & Suggestions section which is meant for discussions about how the forum itself works and such, but then again... quite a lot that don't fit in here.)

[DaleaudeOrnitier]

I don't see why its so inconceivable that you could just buy Heavensward once. In FFXI, I could buy Aht Urghan for 360 and play Aht Urghan content on PS2 and PC as long as I had the data installed. I understand that based on what they're saying, you may have to buy it a few times, but before you cite any other game for cross-play-purchase, how about Square's only other MMO??

[ExiledOne]

but this is not just an MMO, but an MMO expansion. It's not a game, it's more or less DLC.

This is true.
Optional items purchased at the Mog Station are only purchased once for all devices and not "per device"
You'd think that the expansion would work the same way.