The FFXIV Portrait Magnets up for preorder are BLIND BOXES?!

[CuteBucket]

I've bought a lot of FFXIV official merch over the years because I love this game and I'm thankfully in a stable and financially secure enough place in my life to buy fun little things for myself. But I draw the line at this sort of crap. What's really made me angry is the two new portrait magnet sets up for preorder starting today.
Set 1 and Set 2 for reference.

When I first saw these previewed, I thought I'd probably pick up magnets for 3 or 4 for my favorite characters and call it good. But then I realized they're bundled in sets and you have to buy 8 magnets at once. Okay...that's kind of annoying as I don't want all of them, but whatever, I guess I'll have more magnets.

BUT NO
THAT'S NOT THE WORST PART

The most insulting thing about this preorder? You are forced to buy a set of 8 BLIND BOXES for that price!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

So I spend all that money + shipping for only the chance at getting one of the characters I actually want?? And if I have extras or don't get the ones I wanted, it's up to me to go navigate third party resellers on Ebay to sell the ones I don't want and buy the ones I do want??

No. HELL no. We don't even know if the characters seen here are printed at the same rate or not. This is both predatory and wasteful and I can't stand it when companies do stuff like this. I wanted to make a post about it because I suspect that many others, like me, initially looked at the listing and the price and assumed you are buying the full set of 8 magnets with each character for that price. You are not. You are buying 8 random magnets.

[Thurmnmurmn]

That's japan for you. They love gacha elements over there for some dumb reason.

[lolnotacat]

What's real sad is there will be a ton of people buying these because they didn't thoroughly read the description and that's intentional.

[CuteBucket]

That's japan for you. They love gacha elements over there for some dumb reason.

When it's in one of those gachapon machines that are everywhere in Japan, yeah, it's still rather wasteful, but I guess it doesn't bother me quite as much. Most of the items in those are relatively small and inexpensive and released in a similar theme, so you don't feel like you wasted a ton of money + Japan has a whole local trading culture for gatchapon stuff.

But this is the first time I've seen a blind box thing for sale on the Square-Enix store. And you have to buy $88 worth of the damn things in one go. AND this is an international store. I can't just go to a swap meet and trade with others that easily. It's just a stupid, wasteful decision.

[Remolia]

just don't buy this garbage? these characters are just some boring dudes from MSQ one, not even Hildebrand.

and wait when people gonna put it on ebay

[CuteBucket]

What's real sad is there will be a ton of people buying these because they didn't thoroughly read the description and that's intentional.

Yep. I can already anticipate a bunch of people come April next year will get their preorders and then realize they didn't buy a set, they bought gacha boxes. The fact that this isn't stated up front in the item name and you have to scroll down and read under the "description" part to see anything about this is messed up.

[cutestfox]

Each blind box contains 1 (one) random miniature framed portrait magnet and an easel.
Collect them all to make your own miniature art gallery!
$88

That's literally just trolling, like they are actively being malicious at this point

[Kacho_Nacho]

What's real sad is there will be a ton of people buying these because they didn't thoroughly read the description and that's intentional.

Yeah, it is sad. People tend to just purchase things without reading the small print. It should be illegal to do this gacha stuff when people are paying real money.

[lolnotacat]

Yeah, it is sad. People tend to just purchase things without reading the small print. It should be illegal to do this gacha stuff when people are paying real money.

It's annoying that they're doing this kinda shit. It's what I associate with scummy mobile game companies that are fly by night and don't plan on being around more than 6 months to a year. If "Gatcha" were in the title, I'd think it's scummy but excusable. The way these are presented is a scam and meant to take advantage of people. Yes, caveat emptor, but a company should be forthright in every aspect with its customers.

[Sunhwapark]

Bruh, they may as well stop selling permanent outfits on the Mog Station and just start listing them as new outfits that expire every 90 days.