Account wide item limitations are no longer an issue?

[HyoMinPark]

I'm not sure how things are recently, but it has been/was a common thing for companies to try to get you to do this. For example one of Japan's biggest pop idol groups (AKB48) would host voting contests where they would release a music album, but that same album would have several reprints, each one featuring a different girl on the cover. 1 copy of an album with her on it = 1 vote for that girl. And it was absolutely encouraged to buy multiples of the same CD to cast votes for your favorite girl.

This sort of practice stemmed from targeting dedicated fans in niche markets for as much money as possible after Japan's last big economic bubble popped and general consumerism declined, except in niche fields like certain entertainment subcultures (like anime and video games). The short of it is companies learned that hardcore fans are willing to spend huge amounts of cash to support their hobbies, and they capitalized on it.

This article series puts it way better than I could: http://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/28/t...ture-part-one/

This is the specific part of that series that mentions the CD phenomenon with AKB48: http://neojaponisme.com/2011/12/01/t...ure-part-four/

So long post short: absolutely I wouldn't be surprised if that was Square Enix's end goal.

EDIT: for those that don't want to read the whole thing, I'll post the AKB48 bit

Oh no, I am well aware of the practice. As someone who was part of the Kpop community for many years, and who spent far too much on multiple copies of albums in order to get all the extras, I’m well aware of the practice in Asian countries. I just don’t know if SE is expecting NA/EU players to follow suit (since our products generally do not include these extras that prompt people to purchase multiple copies of the same thing whenever a product is released) as a sort of cash grab, or if they are just bs-ing for the sake of bs-ing. I even mentioned in my comment that I am aware that this is a thing in other fandoms.

[DreadRabbit]

Oh no, I am well aware of the practice.

My bad! I didn't want to assume anything specific. I guess my point was Square Enix is one of those companies that doesn't seem to try to differentiate between customers. Especially considering you and others pointed out that they always seem to contradict themselves on when they can and can't do things, and it just falls in line with what other companies tend to do.

[HyoMinPark]

My bad! I didn't want to assume anything specific. I guess my point was Square Enix is one of those companies that doesn't seem to try to differentiate between customers. Especially considering you and others pointed out that they always seem to contradict themselves on when they can and can't do things, and it just falls in line with what other companies tend to do.

You’re fine. :3 I guess I was trying to be positive and give them the benefit of the doubt, and not outright accuse them of what I’m sure they would find to be a very acceptable practice. As a result, I still have not purchased the artbook because I disagree lol.