The issue of the sub price in Ukraine

[Sotaris]

I kinda agree with this as it is an incredibly narrow minded way of looking at things. and the impacts of the war are global. in Britain energy prices are likely to be almost 400% higher by the time 2023 hits.. an annual bill that was roughly £1,200 is forecast to be over £5,000 in january 2023.. so it's not just the ukraine whose financial situation is "not the best"

Gasoline prices as well... even basic foods and grain exports..

while i can empathize with ukraninas being in the centre of it. the impact is global and pointing the finger at Square-Enix is incredibly dumb.

I can't compare to UK but it's pretty bad in many countries in Europe. France, Sweden, Denmark etc.
My wallet cries when I have to fill up my car, and I made the poor decision to get a diesel-fueled CUV in 2020 when it was pretty cheap and low running cost. Now with the taxes and oil prices that we pay in Sweden, it's 0.5 EUR more expensive per liter compared to gasoline.

Thank god my lease ends next years so I can get a EV, but then again - the electricity prices is pretty f***d too.

[Kranel_San]

Ah, this topic again in no less than two days. I'll just quote what I said last time

Other countries have been affected by natural disasters (Including Japan itself) while others have suffered wars for years without getting much support. I don't see why Ukrainians should be any special.

That goes without saying, a little thinking is all it takes to realize the idea of providing discounted subscription prices to a specific group of people is bad because...
1): The obvious misuse of the discount via VPNs and fake documents.
2): Outrage from the local Japanese players because a local company is giving special privileges to a foreign group of players while they had none over the years.
3): Ukrainian players will start demanding even more privileges, while other nationalities will start demanding too. At a later point, minorities will also get in the line and everyone will be demanding special privileges to be given to them.
4): Similar to the second reason, it would be unfair towards players from countries affected by natural disasters and conflicts too and could be seen as a "We care more about them than you" type of behavior.
5): Following all of the above, the results would be a damaged reputation and a cut in revenues. This is obviously bad from a business perspective (They're not a charity) and it will also grab the attention of investors who would question the company's decisions. This might get investors more involved in the company's decision-making and more to the point we might get another company to behave like Blizzard where they're devoting themselves to appease the investors (As if things with SE aren't enough...).

It's just terrible...

[Greyhawk]

1. Square-Enix itself does not make regional prices. Steam makes them. And he does them not out of the kindness of his heart, but on the assumption that without them the profit will be lower due to the departure of the players.

2. If you want to help Ukrainian players, then who prevents you from creating a fund and transferring money there to pay for the game.

Sorry for the bad English.

And not everyone plays through Steam. Majority of us play direct through the client, not Steam.

[Stormpeaks]

Just stop it already

[vinney690]

I can't believe all the flak your post is getting.. I for one agree with you, and I'm really sorry about the horrible situation your country is in and I hope you stay safe. With all the money square makes off this game it wouldn't be hard (with the resources they have) to provide you guys with a credit on a per account basis(some crysta or something) to help offset the price.
I don't struggle financially, but I find it hard to justify paying the same price as AAA games for expansions, as well as my sub. I still do though, cuz I love the game and spend all my time on it.
If I was in your shoes I would contact square directly and bring it to and perhaps above the supervisors you speak to. If that doesn't work I would either play a different game for the time being, or not play all together until the state of things and the economy cool down over there.
Good luck! Stay safe and best wishes!

[Packetdancer]

I definitely understand the pain; when the world is stressful, having a thing you can turn to in order to unwind and find joy is something to treasure. But if that thing ends up being expensive, you can end up in the unpleasant place where the "help reduce my stress" thing becomes stressful itself. (Financially speaking.)

I admit I still think it's unlikely that SQEX is going to change sub prices regionally to account for any of this -- simply because I suspect their European subscription infrastructure exists at the EU level, not at a regional/national level, and trying to make any regional exceptions/alterations in a scenario like that is an enormous headache on many, many levels. Tying subscriptions to more than one type of currency is an enormous headache in so, so many ways.

Which does not change the fact that the situation is really unfortunate for those whose national currency is suffering an unfavorable exchange rate.

If they did take an action of some form, what I suspect would be more likely is another suspension of housing demolition. Because they have done that before when world events cause a large number of folks to be unable to play, so that they don't feel pressured to keep a subscription going (and trying to log in every 45 days) just to keep their in-game house even when it would be financially difficult; they've suspended housing demolition when there were earthquakes, or at the beginning of the pandemic when many people's employment situations were... less secure than would be ideal, and so on.

And that I can see them doing again.

[JamieRose]

Hey, I'm writing this post in an attempt to bring this issue to light mostly for the veteran players in Ukraine and people who have been financially struggling as a result of the recent conflict. I live in Ukraine and I am in no way a veteran player as I've started playing the game around March of this year when the war in my country has already began

I think I speak for all Ukrainians when I say that the financial situation in our country is currently not the best, and while other MMOs have retained their pre-war pricing, FFXIV's subscription price being tied to the Euro currently makes it the most expensive sub on the market by far.

The price has risen from 260UAH to ≈430UAH due to exchange rate fluctuations, and it feels really bad to pay such a high price considering the situation in our country. A lot of people lost their jobs, a lot of people's income plummeted since February and it feels incredibly strange to see the FFXIV sub price gradually increasing, while for example the starter edition on Steam has retained it's price at 312UAH.

Just to clarify, I am not asking for anything free and I don't feel like I am obliged to receive anything for free just because my country is at war, but regional pricing is a best practice that has been adopted in a lot of storefronts, but somehow it is completely (or maybe partially) missing from FFXIV.

Hopefully this'll reach someone who can make such decisions on the game's end, because I've been loving the game to death and it would be extremely unfortunate if I won't be able to pay for a sub in case Ukraine's financial situation worsens even further.

Here is a Zepla video on the topic if you want to read more into it, since I don't think I was able to explain the situation in a most charming manner lol: https://youtu.be/rz8LsVJDeXI

Aren't you supposed to be marching to war? Things must be going pretty well if you have time to beg for money on MMO forums and name drop booby streamers.

[Wolwosh]

Also FF14 isn't running a charity. Everything is getting more expensive everywhere atm..

[Atelier-Bagur]

GCBTW to all of you loving and caring people yada yada.


Sorry OP, all I can say is that I hope you and everyone's situation over in Ukraine gets better.

[Toutatis]

I think I speak for all Ukrainians when I say that the financial situation in our country is currently not the best, and while other MMOs have retained their pre-war pricing, FFXIV's subscription price being tied to the Euro currently makes it the most expensive sub on the market by far.

It would be even higher if it was tied to the US dollar such as in the case of Latin American countries. I have a lot of friends who would like to but can’t afford playing this game because of that. Local salaries are simply not high enough and the subscription cost is disproportionate. Some have local taxes added too. Credit cards use unfavourable conversion rates too so the end price ends up being way more than the basic US price too. They never had access to a special rate as Ukraine and Russia had in the past although the average salary can be lower in several Central and Latin America countries.

Atm UK pays £7.99, Europe €10.99 and the Americas 12.99 USD month for a 6 mth sub. Taking into account exchange rates, the UK gets the better deal at an equivalent of $9.45/month and the Americas (even moreso for countries other than the US), the worse.