Steam payment HUGE price increase!

[DoppelShifter]

[snip]

And this might actually get some attention from SE if things keep up. This situation might not be the actual cause of any dent in the stock values right now, but they sure are a reason to keep some people a bit jumpy.

After all, Steam is still the largest PC gaming storefront. And FFXIV's page is basically defaced with an ever-shrinking review score, with multiple negative reviews from veteran players (currently at 53% and still dropping). This might be enough to make some people jumpy, specially considering how SE is handling the situation: by mostly ignoring it and waiting until it goes away.

If this situation drags on and more people join the outcry, specially more sites, journalists and youtubers, SE might actually start feeling like they should do something.

[Ayerinn]

After all, Steam is still the largest PC gaming storefront. And FFXIV's page is basically defaced with an ever-shrinking review score, with multiple negative reviews from veteran players (currently at 53% and still dropping).

I think people are being a little ridiculous...Yes, it was bad business practice for SE to raise prices without notice. Yes, it is very poor (and very suspect to be honest) timing being one month after an Expansion launch (aka 30+ days which is a standard return policy for goods - though software tends to be shorter.) However, in the end no matter how horrible the situation was handled with lack of communication before any changes occurred - it is in their right to change prices. It sucks and you have your right to voice your opinion in forums and on Steam, but it is what it is. Writing bad reviews to tank a games "score" just because you are upset it costs too much after a price change, though, is in my mind just as ridiculous as SE changing pricing without notice. If the reasoning for a low score was changing prices without notice, that is a little more reasonable though that is more of a reflection on a corporations pricing policies and NOT the actual end product (not to say those policies have no relevance.) This is basically the equivalent of people protesting in front of a store...99% of the time I find those people are best ignored.

[JumperX]

snip

I welcome any type of real shareholder person to this conversation. As you know the shares are bought according to the individual risk. More people like you should speak up and show your concern with the company and shareholders with a bigger share. I am sure many people facing this problem would like to your voice and other minority shareholders voices to join their cause.

[Hakim]

The thing is, SE wants to charge us the 15 USD that everyone pays, monthly. It's understandable, and on their right.
I believe many players would pay for it with no problem whatsoever, however that price is the same that countries with their own decent regional servers, with support for their own language pay. Meanwhile, we have to pay in dollars (not our currency, and very pricey converted from real), a 330+ ping server in foreign language only, so we have to also pay some kind of wtfast to lower our ping so we can properly enjoy the game.
..And changes such as the steam regional currency going down without even a whisper from SE. That, in my opinion, is not fair at all.
It might not seem fair for USD paying customers, but that steam conversion was the only thing that made people that can't afford to pay in dollars be able to. It's expected of SE to research about the country they are offering service to anyways.
It would be nice to have a real announcement about that for sure.

[gustavray]

It is still their responsibility because first of all they chose to sell the game on steam. Second, they set their prices on steam. Steam is but an intermediate in all this. Square Enix could have done this when HW was released, since back then 1 USD was 4,15 BRL. But they didn\\'t. Now after releasing a huge expansion and also after time for refund has expired, they decided to make it equal to everyone. That\\'s is their responsibility for sure. And they can\\'t do that without notice. They should even have told members that with the upcoming expansions regional pricing difference would be removed from steam. We weren\\'t even allowed to buy HW for a fair price. HW came out in Brazil costing 80 USD at the time for collectors edition. We paid for it. U want equality? Give us the money for HW back because we paid much more than other countries for it. And pls with interest because it\\'s been 2 years.

[Raikai]

Damn, it's awful not just because the price increase, but because there was NO PREVIOUS NOTICE.

If I knew this beforehand, I'd purchase several months of sub in advance because now it's almost the DOUBLE of what was paid before. I'd get some of the mogstation items that I won't now because I'd rather save for the sub.

[Akatosh]

Well, the old price of R$ 28,99 was considerable in my finances, but I could manage it. With the price being jacked up to what it is now, however, I really can't justify the purchase. It's a shame really, because I love this game. I didn't, and still don't, have enough time to get my money's worth out of most of the days that I paid for, but I felt the price was reasonable enough to support a game I grew really fond of. But with this unannounced increase, this game just went into borderline unaffordable to me, and to a lot of other Brazilian players. So thank you SE, it was a fun ride, it's a shame I won't be able to renew my sub for a long while because the concept that people in different countries can't afford the same price as another seems to have escaped someone's mind.

[Rofel]

Stormblood is one of the most unpleasant experiences I had as a player and customer. The server move, two to three days stuck at the bottleneck, plus three days unable to get into Omega because some non-NA players couldn't queue for this period of time. And now THIS. No warning and no real reason - unless you truly believe that charging the same to low income countries is "fair".

[Paladinleeds]

unless you truly believe that charging the same to low income countries is "fair".

Depends on the personality of the person. There's J and P types on Myers-Briggs. J types are very much "Same for all." - for example everyone pays the same regardless of circumstance, and that is how they see fair. P types will look into individual circumstances and assess that way, allowing for adjustments given a person's circumstances. In short:

The fourth criterion, Judging – Perceiving, reflects how a person implements the information he or she has processed.

Neither of them are wrong approaches truth be told. I can see both sides, though I would lean more towards a P in this situation, in that low income countries should have their individual needs accounted for (which is pretty strange given I'm an ENTJ).

[Ronivan]

Got a different answer from my ticket:

Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Support,

Unfortunately the SQUARE ENIX Support Center cannot assist with this issue via email. In order to further assist you, we will need you to contact us via phone or chat, and the SQUARE ENIX Support Center will be happy to assist you.

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Thank you for contacting the SQUARE ENIX Support Center.

Really? Now they are not even trying to copy and paste anymore the same mechanic answer?