Licensing issue

[Drdoomcakes]

Hey there,

I have a concern about a licensing issue with Square Enix's involvement with Steam. It seems Square Enix continues to sell end-user products via Windows that are incompatible with Steam accounts with Final Fantasy XIV. During Square Enix's Cyber Monday/Black Friday sale CD keys were sold to end users who were instructed to go through the Mog Station service and Steam service in order to utilize them and they are coming back as invalid products. This seems like a combination of a licensing issue mixed with a product issue.

Here is the process for end user: Steam client maintains the end user library for games such as Final Fantasy XIV. All upgrades must be done through the Mog Station to validate on Steam.
Steam Client maintains those upgrades and services patches for them. The end user can not purchase the game elsewhere or they will come in conflict with a licensing incompatibility issue eif it is sold through the Square Enix store or elsewhere. The end user applies all changes to their account through the Mog Station and Steam client to have it register for patching and proper verification.

Square Enix and Steam both have policies of no refunds, no returns. This is quite the dilemma for those that are looking to purchase license copies of the game from anywhere outside of Steam. I was told of a company by the name of Scale Fast who deals with further licensing issues, but maintains a similar policy of no refunds, no returns. It seems there is a glaring issue with your licensing policies and it harms the end user's capability to access the product. It's a dizzying battle if you go outside of the Steam client yet Square Enix continues to sell copies of Final Fantasy XIV products. This is a conflict in licensed product. It's the same Square Enix product that the end user is unable to access.

Is this Na Licensing, Mog Station, or Steam issue with incompatible CD license keys?



Thank you for your review,

Nathan Vesely

[Lambdafish]

So correct me if I'm wrong... you have the steam version and attempted to buy what from outside of steam? Because SE and Steam have always been clear about the separation of Steam XIV and Windows XIV. They are two different entities.

[MistakeNot]

In general: If you use Steam for a game, you are stuck with having to buy everything for that game through Steam. This is true for all games - not just FFXIV, and should not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Steam.
There are some exceptions to this, but they are just that - exceptions.

Solution: Don't use Steam at all except for those few products that are only available through Steam.

[Lexia]

Where exactly did you buy your (i'm assuming HW) key from? If you bought from the SE online store there a notice on the page about steam.

Notice: This product is not compatible with the Steam version of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn. If you’ve purchased FFXIV: A Realm Reborn on Steam, then you must also purchase FFXIV: Heavensward on Steam to upgrade your existing account.