Expansion Platforms

[RadMan]

So, i know the following is true:

Do I need to purchase FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward for each of the platforms that I currently play A Realm Reborn on?
Global: Yes. You will need to purchase and register a copy for each of the platforms that you would like to play on.

What I want to know is why they're doing it this way... is it some japanese law or did they not consider that a services account's "current expansion" shouldn't be tied to a platform. I can understand Sony being mad that they don't get a share of the pie when a person upgrades but....I think they could get away with Heavensward just being the same game on the console getting a regular old patch, and that the upgrade is a pure Square Enix profiting type thing.

Like, does Sony get part of the monthly rebills or the onetime purchases that go through Mog Station? No, so why should they get a cut of the expansion upgrade.

[Lexia]

Well Sony not hosting the data on their servers for free, that being the PSN store to digital version of the game/expansion not the actual gameplay. As for the key I think it a SE policy cause if you start on Playstation and then go to PC you still have to rebuy game.

[monochromicorn]

It's like this for every expansion, for all mmos, you have to have the license for that platform. I play diablo 3 on 3 different platforms, had to buy each separately (pc for back home, ps3/4 were separate too). This is nothing new for cross platform mmos

[Sove92]

XI didn't work like this, it was just tied to your account (the install data was only on disc but nothing prevented you from just loaning it). It's most likely because of Steam and SE doesn't want to make it unfair for them, so you need to buy for every platform.

[Vrankyl]

Actually it has to do with licensing with Sony. Sony requires a separate licence to use the psn something that did not exist for the ps2 and so did not affect foci.

[Vrankyl]

Meant ff11 not sure why edit is not an option on mobile stupid autocorrect

[Lexia]

Kind of funny everyone blames Sony in all these threads, Play on playstation you gotta buy the game (I get the whole PS3/PS4 license thing), but now if you want to play on PC gotta buy the game again if you want to play on mac gotta buy the game again but it all sony's fault.

[Icehunter]

Kind of funny everyone blames Sony in all these threads, Play on playstation you gotta buy the game (I get the whole PS3/PS4 license thing), but now if you want to play on PC gotta buy the game again if you want to play on mac gotta buy the game again but it all sony's fault.

Agreed. In XI at least if you played on PC but wanted to use another platform you had to buy it. However; if you played on XBOX/PS4 you could play on PC for free. It seems SE want's to monetize this as much as possible rather than using glamour items in the cash shop which would get them more money in the long run than these expansions. At this point I won't be getting the mac version for the wife and I; and we will be limiting ourselves to one platform until expansions drop in price after the next one goes out.

Instead of paying almost $500 per expansion it will just be about $150.

[Seig345]

If I'm not mistaken; both Sony and Microsoft (in terms of Xbox, which I know doesn't directly apply to this game) typically set some kind of size limit for game patches that can be released for free for a game licensed on their system. Anything that goes over that limit is required to be a purchased download, which means it's purchased through PSN/XBL and therefore Sony/Microsoft gets a cut of each sale.

Steam? I dunno, probably in the agreement somewhere, but honestly the only point I can even see in FFXIV being on Steam is simpler access to buying the game digitally, although I always assumed there was a way to do that through SE.

[kyuven]

Remember making it "one purchase per account" would be simpler on THEIR end too, as evidenced by the people having problems just pre-ordering the fracking things. It all falls under the big ol' happy "DLC" banner that providers such as Sony, Steam, and Microsoft include in their contracts to make sure they get a slice of the pie. Sony just happens to be more "permissive" about it than microsoft.
FFXI, being one of the first ever MMOs playable on a console and having expansions that predate DLC, often gets grandfathered clauses allowing SE to take control of the game the way they see fit.
The only major difference between this and DLC for other games is that FFXIV is one of those VERY rare games that actually has cross-platform support, so the "platform lock" is a lot more jarring.