Steam payment HUGE price increase!

[Moragen]

Nice year with ff14, nice emotions from MSQ and music. But... That's all Folks! At least I am done with this price for sub.

[Rofel]

"If Steam sells something for a loss, then it's Steam that loses money."

It was said that SE determines the pricing over Steam, they were not making it cheaper for the sake of it.

[Katsuragi_]

I'm not sure what kind of contract they might have specifically with each other, but generally the way Steam works is that Valve just charges a percentage of what the developer makes.

[ToasterMan]

Wow SE, you really want to see Blizzard win don't you? I hope competitors take full advantage of this.

[JunseiKei]

"If Steam sells something for a loss, then it's Steam that loses money."

It was said that SE determines the pricing over Steam, they were not making it cheaper for the sake of it.

Well, here's the thing... said prices are controlled by the game's publisher, not Valve. Square Enix dictates the prices for Brazil and Russia, and then ignored them for 5 years with no change. Might have been an oversight, but this oversight was what brought the Russian and Brazilian player base we have here.

We hope that this overall shady behavior serves as a justification for Valve to weight in just like they did in NMS and Arkham Knight and allow for refunds; or at least poke Square Enix saying "Yo folks, you have an impending PR nightmare here on this side. Either authorize the refunds or do something about it".

I made my post fully aware of this. You did not understand what I was alluring to. Steam is simply a middle man providing another entry to a service. Middle men usually either get cuts from the business or tack on their own fee for the service. This does not change the fact that Steam Wallet is a Steam process. SE might set the prices for their own goods, but that does not stop Steam from asking for their services. This already happened recently in Australia with Steam's Goods and Services tax.

I'm not saying there's no possible faulting of SE, but I am trying to give you reason to pause and think on other reasons this may be happening. Also, I gave an example of why this may have come to SE's attention in the form of a "legit and SE supported" Mogstation that was not being run directly from Square Enix. SE doesn't like people messing with their income. No business does, and like every business, they'll seek ways to make that money back. This could be their answer.

I don't know. It's just a theory.

I'm not sure what kind of contract they might have specifically with each other, but generally the way Steam works is that Valve just charges a percentage of what the developer makes.

The only articles I can find are the unfair price discrepancies across the globe over Steam pricing (a 3 year old article) and another article on Steam giving developers the tools to opt into sales on Steam on their own schedule, rather than being forced into some Steam schedule. The latter which does not apply to this situation as it's not a sale, but the first article certainly applies. Worth reading.

In the very least, this is not a new issue, only newly knocking on FFXIV's door.

[EriShvakh]

snip

SE had full control over prices all this time. Some items in mog shop were sold at 100% of their value, jump portions and transfers for example. So up until the exact month since SB release they were perfectly fine with our payment model. It's not life RUB suddenly dropped in price. It happened years ago. But for some reason, only after we bought new expansion and played it for a month, SE suddenly realised that RUB exchange rate has dropped. I'm sorry I don't believe in coincidences.

[JunseiKei]

SE had full control over prices all this time. Some items in mog shop were sold at 100% of their value, jump portions and transfers for example. So up until the exact month since SB release they were perfectly fine with our payment model. It's not life RUB suddenly dropped in price. It happened years ago. But for some reason, only after we bought new expansion and played it for a month, SE suddenly realised that RUB exchange rate has dropped. I'm sorry I don't believe in coincidences.

Kindly read the whole post. Thank you.

EDIT:

I'll just say it because apparently reading is hard or simply cherry picking points on my post.

BR and RU players abused the reduced rates on Steam Wallet to buy Mogstation items. They then re-sold the items for profit (I want to say I remember seeing Sleipnir being sold for around $15.00 compared to $24.00 from the store directly). This was roughly 1 month before Stormblood. Investigations to find the reason why takes time. While it has been apparently made impossible to buy items from the Mogstation through Steam (not in that area nor do I use Steam for FFXIV so I do not know the validity of this claim), this lends causation.

So no, it's not a coincidence at all, nor have I tried saying that at all.

[EriShvakh]

Kindly read the whole post. Thank you.

Ok, let's see.

There were no news about changes to steam's cut. Russian tax on digital sales got introduced a year(?) ago. RUB exchange rate is stable. Nope, sorry, I don't see a reason for a sudden change. Why they didn't change it back in 2014 when rub dropped two times in price? Why they didn't change it when tax was introduced? Why change it exactly a month after SB release? Why not on SB release? Why not before? Really makes you almonds crack, huh?

[Drakanoth]

Kindly read the whole post. Thank you.

EDIT:

I'll just say it because apparently reading is hard or simply cherry picking points on my post.

BR and RU players abused the reduced rates on Steam Wallet to buy Mogstation items. They then re-sold the items for profit. This was roughly 1 month before Stormblood. Investigations to find the reason why takes time.

Yes, its the classic case of "this is why we can't have nice things". The majority losing good stuff because some people abuse it. The article you mentioned on your post is very interesting, but I don't think it hits straight to the point of why we are upset. Alright, the price raised, but why did they do this the first patch after the expansion, without any blog post or previous notice? This is the main reason a lot of people are upset. They spent money on the expansion they might not play now because its on a price range they might not be willing to pay. Its just too shady.

[EriShvakh]

BR and RU players abused the reduced rates on Steam Wallet to buy Mogstation items. They then re-sold the items for profit

So there is this revolutionary solution. Like. I just came up with it. I must be a genius. But. BUT! Hear me out.

What if we increase prices for cosmetic items? Like, we're already selling Jump potions for a full price, so why not do the same thing for other items.

That way we can get more money from RU and BR, kill reselling market, and keep thousands of players from waging holy war against us!

A-MA-ZING. SE needs to hire me right now.