Open letter, Dear Mr Naoki Yoshida

[SilvannaLesly]

Because this is either:-
* a property under distribution contract.
* or, one that is just too difficult for SE Legal to get past Malaysia's laws
* or, they have other future plans
* or, they just don't like Malaysia
* or, it's not worth the money to localise
* or, as FFXIV is an MMO and none of the others are
* or, something else
* or, none of these and it's something I haven't thought of

I believe it's contractual. This doesn't make the premise invalid no matter how much you dislike my reasoning.



Australia's gamers spent $3.4 billion in 2020 (total population 25 million),
New Zealand's Gamers spent $324 million in 2020 (total population 4.8 million),
USA's gamers spent $60.4 billion (total population 334 million),
Japan's gamers spent $20.7 billion (total population 126 million).

It's meaningless and a red herring to the why of it.



There is one opening in 10 days for the Oceanic region, of which large chunks of South East Asia are part of. There are also plans for needed server enhancements for NA, EU and JA, that's taking it through to 2023 I'd say. Opening another one in SEA, say in Singapore - or in LATAM, say in Brazil - comes down to specific property earnings, number of players and contracts with existing distributors.

Honestly, I hope that you can buy the game legally soon, but for now, you likely need to direct your questions to the SE CEO, not Yoshi-P. As I really do think it's going to be contractual or something else way outside development.

If you don't like what I think, sorry.

Ic ic..
It just sad man.. my parents bought me ps1 just for me to play the original FF7 when i was a kid, then FF8, FF9, subsequently ff10... I'm in love with the series ever since i play FF7 in my cousins house when i was a kid, now that I'm an adult.. i bought my self PS3 and PS4 and a PC just to play this FF series FF12, FF13, FF14 and FF15.. even replay the old ff9 classic (my favourite) on my android device.. love this game man.. I hope that I'm not banned from breaching TOC just because Malaysia address are not recognised (the drop down country list does not even listed Malaysia upon registration).. been playing this ff14 game for years without an issue only now its an issue...

[2zarichx]

Because this is either:-
* a property under distribution contract.
* or, one that is just too difficult for SE Legal to get past Malaysia's laws
* or, they have other future plans
* or, they just don't like Malaysia
* or, it's not worth the money to localise
* or, as FFXIV is an MMO and none of the others are
* or, something else
* or, none of these and it's something I haven't thought of

I believe it's contractual. This doesn't make the premise invalid no matter how much you dislike my reasoning.



Australia's gamers spent $3.4 billion in 2020 (total population 25 million),
New Zealand's Gamers spent $324 million in 2020 (total population 4.8 million),
USA's gamers spent $60.4 billion (total population 334 million),
Japan's gamers spent $20.7 billion (total population 126 million).

It's meaningless and a red herring to the why of it.



There is one opening in 10 days for the Oceanic region, of which large chunks of South East Asia are part of. There are also plans for needed server enhancements for NA, EU and JA, that's taking it through to 2023 I'd say. Opening another one in SEA, say in Singapore - or in LATAM, say in Brazil - comes down to specific property earnings, number of players and contracts with existing distributors.

Honestly, I hope that you can buy the game legally soon, but for now, you likely need to direct your questions to the SE CEO, not Yoshi-P. As I really do think it's going to be contractual or something else way outside development.

If you don't like what I think, sorry.

I think they still don’t get your point, lol.

[technole]

There is a lot of logistics including local laws in some SEA territories that it's likely not worth SE's time and money to handle publishing rights on their own, and their best bet might be to get another partner. Like the game in China and Korea is not published by Square-Enix, they are handled by 3rd party publishers.

[Quintessa]

I'm reminded that I used to have a lot of indonesian friends and for a lot of things they have to shoot through questionable hoops to obtain things that most other first world countries can get rather easily. It's somewhat like that gaming situation in South America.

You mean by banning them, right? They've explicitly come out and stated that they're breaking ToS on an offical forum.

Of course you're joking but that is likely what happened to the OP and why we haven't heard back from him and I'm sure he knew the risk by posting that. They needed a voice and he decided to be one.

Also the big man is on the board so he could always pass this along but that's all he can do.

[TheLordDawnbringer]

is not about that , a lot of misconception here~ is not about localization or give the game to 3rd party , is not about adding a server for us

I think a lot of SEA players will be happy and most of them are with the game right now, we just wanted to be able to identify as SEA players and being able to register our account with our country listed ,

whether we are part of NA/EU OR OC regions is literally does not matter~
that is it~
don't makes this complicated, like 99% online games in 2022 does not have that type of restrictions , kuala lumpur held 2 distant worlds concert already ,

this is just an online game, and in 2022 we are not able to register because our country
is not listed , but country like malawi and madagascar is ~

lets not forget that SEA for singapore and brunei is listed , in 2014 , If I'm not mistaken , then SQEX and FFXIV never add more~ if the problems is with country like Malaysia , why not add Indonesia , Philippines or Thailand ?
you know that Singapore and Brunei , is beside malaysia and surrounded with Indonesia and Philippines

you know that everything that is you talk about is unrelated, where others company like Blizzard, Amazon and others has settle this issue right, there is not problems with any individual gov to play all these other games and mmo right?

if there is , why only singpore and brunei is added~ both are from SEA
There is a total of 11 Brunei and Singapore got added ,how about Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, , Thailand and Vietnam.

are these countries does not exist? are we not human enough to ask for our concern, as human being can we communicate and try to works this thing together~

I think it is extremely beneficial to SQEX , CBU3 , FFXIV can have enough and real data, to know how many players are from SEA , so as a company they can do a lot of things for the better future

but the first step that we want , after almost 10 years , is to give us the ability able to register , officially supported and our country is added and listed so old and new player alike can enjoy playing this game, with ease of mind that , we SEA players exist , and we are part of FFXIV community, we are all WoL , we play and we pay our sub~ and we are being acknowledge by our lovely producer , our savior , mr yoshi P~

and we are indeed , the best community, like we won an award for that right? this is the best mmorpg right now, the developer always listen to the community ~
we just want to this issue to be address by our producer in 2022,

please ~

[Bearded]

OP please stop dismissing people explanations as unrelated.

Countries have distribution laws and it has been said in this thread time and time again SE have probably contracted those in the countries you mention are not available to a third party and they (not SE) are the ones who have decided not to support the game in those countries. Either that or the countries themselves through some legislation mean it is not possible for the game to be accessed.

SE would not give up any income if it were legally allowed to get that income - that is a simple fact that you cannot dismiss.

Maybe try asking your countries leaders why FFXIV is not available? There are a whole heap of legal, taxation and other things to consider.

[Gothicshark]

can we get our Answer , we are not demanding, we wanna ask is there no hope for us?

Well I wish you luck on this crusade. However, in a few of those nations that you listed, they may actually have laws banning the game, or preventing them from selling the game. Taxes and costs have to be considered when bringing a game to a marketplace, also local laws have to be respected. Which is why Chinese Players are forced to play on Chinese Specific Servers which makes the games content different than the rest of the world.

I'm not sure which of these issues have prevented the localization of the game to your nation, but I could hazard a guess for a few of them.

Singapore is included because it has open trade agreements with Japan, and has fairly easy laws for international business.

Conversely:
Brunei - is an Islamic Monarchy, and has strict laws in regards to international business.
Malaysia - Federal Republic with a state religion, and has several strict laws based on it's state religion. Which causes a headache for international business, as they have to insure they don't break Islamic law while having a western style approach to business.
Indonesia - Once again Islamic Majority state, many laws enforce Islam, making international business to jump through extra hoops.
Philippines - Government chaos at it's finest. Unlike the others, the Philippines has one of the least reliable governments in the world, it's become really difficult to do business in the Philippines due to the issues with it's government.

Note: the main issue in Islamic Countries is the depiction of Alcohol use, and the eating of Unclean foods. I'm sure many other conservative Islamic countries are not included, due to how hard it would be to change the game to be legal in such nations. (And lets not get into clothing options for females, as some countries like Saudi Arabia have very strict laws that prevent video games which show any skin on female characters.

[Gothicshark]

nah, my country and SE has done business , no FF games got ban or censored, sqex has done a couple event here in malaysia , literally like 90% of games can be play and purchase here~ we even can register and get support from blizzard , cause our country is listed.

WoW, SWTOR, New World & even BDO wont allow you to register your acct as SEA country.. But guess what? all those MMO and more allow you to register and play as SEA player is listed ~

WoW, SWTOR I know for a fact both have Islamic Localization, which means that they changed the game to be legal in Saudi Arabia, so if your country is Islamic, which I suspect, a big issue for 14 is the depiction of Women being able to wear bikinis, and the use of alcohol, most Final Fantasy Games have male Protagonists, and the female characters are dressed in a way that does not cause an issue with Islamic Law. 14 However does have such issues. BTW, one of the reasons why Sort Skirts are not allowed in WOW, and why almost all Skirt options have pants in SWTOR has to do with Islamic localization.

[TheLordDawnbringer]

Well I wish you luck on this crusade. However, in a few of those nations that you listed, they may actually have laws banning the game, or preventing them from selling the game. Taxes and costs have to be considered when bringing a game to a marketplace, also local laws have to be respected. Which is why Chinese Players are forced to play on Chinese Specific Servers which makes the games content different than the rest of the world.

I'm not sure which of these issues have prevented the localization of the game to your nation, but I could hazard a guess for a few of them.

Singapore is included because it has open trade agreements with Japan, and has fairly easy laws for international business.

Conversely:
Brunei - is an Islamic Monarchy, and has strict laws in regards to international business.
Malaysia - Federal Republic with a state religion, and has several strict laws based on it's state religion. Which causes a headache for international business, as they have to insure they don't break Islamic law while having a western style approach to business.
Indonesia - Once again Islamic Majority state, many laws enforce Islam, making international business to jump through extra hoops.
Philippines - Government chaos at it's finest. Unlike the others, the Philippines has one of the least reliable governments in the world, it's become really difficult to do business in the Philippines due to the issues with it's government.

Note: the main issue in Islamic Countries is the depiction of Alcohol use, and the eating of Unclean foods. I'm sure many other conservative Islamic countries are not included, due to how hard it would be to change the game to be legal in such nations. (And lets not get into clothing options for females, as some countries like Saudi Arabia have very strict laws that prevent video games which show any skin on female characters.

it literally has no issue with that, others game has done worst , and yet still be able to sell and brought in game, most sony game is can be literally sold at retail , game that break the islamic code, and yet the government still does not censored the game
don't assume just because of islamic this and islamic that, Malaysia is literally one the most diverse country in the world,

is has nothing to do with that ~ if you think about that , then how come other games can ?
it issue is just we are not be able to register an account cause most of sea country is not listed~ brunei has the most strict in islamic law, but still listed

[Brightamethyst]

is has nothing to do with that ~ if you think about that , then how come other games can ?

What other games do or don't do is irrelevant. Clearly there is something preventing THIS game from being sold in certain countries.

None of us know exactly what the issue is, we're all just guessing here, but it's almost certain that the issue is with the local regulations/licenses/copyrights/whatevers rather than SE arbitrarily saying "eh, screw those guys."