Beta and the issue of billing

[Sephrick]

I know direct questions rarely get answered, but this is one pointed at the community reps in hopes we can get a response.

Keeping a concrete date for the v1 shutdown is all well and good, but it brings about an interesting billing issue.

Since billing is a 30-day cycle starting from activation, I assume the dates are scattered throughout the month for when individuals are billed.

Let's assume the v1 shut down occurs Oct. 15 -- merely as a speculative example. What happens to those due to be billed Sept. 16 and beyond?

I know the response we might get is that "details will be released 'soon,'" but Oct. 15 is at the far end of the late Sept./early Oct. target. So in theory, some people may have already payed their last sub fee while others might be getting slighted and not yet know it.

I guess the most pointed way to ask what I'm pondering is; what happens if our last sub fee is less than a month away from the shutdown?

[Kasathar]

I don't think there is going to be a "shut down" on the game services, most probably a heavy download that will either patch our current client into ver 2.0 or a full ver. 2.0 client download. If anything, you will loose 1 day or maximum 2 (if your connection sucks)

[Sephrick]

I don't think there is going to be a "shut down" on the game services, most probably a heavy download that will either patch our current client into ver 2.0 or a full ver. 2.0 client download. If anything, you will loose 1 day or maximum 2 (if your connection sucks)

I'm talking about when they shut down the servers for at least three months for Alpha/Beta testing.

[Kasathar]

I am sure the Alpha and Beta testing servers will be entirely separate from the Live servers.

[Sephrick]

I am sure the Alpha and Beta testing servers will be entirely separate from the Live servers.

It's well documented that v1 is shutting down when testing begins in late Sept./early Oct.

[Lexa]

They probably will carry over the remaining play time to when the server re-opened, like, if I have 15 days left when the server goes down, I will have 15 days left when it came back up.

[Kasathar]

It's well documented that v1 is shutting down when testing begins in late Sept./early Oct.

Hmm I would like to see this documentation. I haven't seen such announcement yet.

[nekroturkey]

Good question, I was actually wondering this myself. Will the subscription option still be around when there's less than 30 days left until 1.0 shuts down, or will the option be deactivated prior to the final 30 days (like how the 90 day option was deactivated in June)? My next bill date is on the 8th, but I'm not going to pay it if the servers end up shutting down on the 20th or something. However, I definitely don't want to miss out on patch 1.23b either.

Some clarification would be greatly appreciated.

[Sephrick]

Hmm I would like to see this documentation. I haven't seen such announcement yet.

I'm too tired to dig up every reference but this one says it quite clearly:

Final Fantasy XIV players, take note: Your days are numbered. Er, at least your days spent in the original FFXIV world. When the game's rebirth, called A Realm Reborn, occurs later this year, the game's servers will be taken offline. Rather than overlap the two versions of the game, Square-Enix director/producer Naoki Yoshida says the original servers will be taken offline "some day in the near future," precipitating an alpha and then a beta for the game's relaunch later this year.

"Basically what's going to happen is that the current story is still continuing now, but some day in the near future -- and we'll make sure we tell the players what day that is -- something is going to happen in the story, and at that time, the servers are going to shut down," Yoshida told us in a group interview this morning at Gamescom.

The reason for the shutdown is less thrilling than you might think. "Basically the player data will be taken over into the new game. So, to convert all this new data for the new systems, we need a certain amount of time to do this. There's so much data, so many thousands of characters that we must do this for. And so we have to shut down the servers," he said.

Yoshida was quick to point out that players will have plenty of warning ahead of the shut-down (consider this your first heads-up). He also notes that the original game's userbase will be prioritized in A Realm Reborn's beta queue and that players will "be able to use their current characters in the beta test as well." Though that may not be at the kickoff of the beta, he says, "We're working in a way to try to get it as close to the beginning of the beta test as possible."

A Realm Reborn is headed to both PlayStation 3 and PC later this year.

Taken from here: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08...relaunch-a-re/

[Xodus84]

http://gdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/dow...Roadmap_EN.pdf