So 1.0 owners have to start paying the monthly fee immediately?

[Abriael]

FFXIV:ARR includes 30 free days of playtime with purchase for new accounts. However, even though players who own FFXIV Version 1.0 will receive FFXIV:ARR for free, this does not include the 30 free days of play.

Does this means that 1.0 owners will have to start paying the monthly fee immediately?

This is a *large* 180 from what was announced previously (for instance here), that clearly stated that there'd be a free trial for PC users before they'd have to pay the monthly fee.

I'd say a clarification is needed because there are going to be a lot of disappointed people because of this.

If I didn't completely misinterpret what Hvinire said, I can't even start explaining how bad an idea this is, as it completely misses the chance to drag back into the game many 1.0 players that would probably try it if they had some free game time, but having been disappointed once, won't spend money on it without trying it.

Edit: Some info has been given by Yoshida solving the issue, unfortunately that info was posted here by someone else in potential breach of the beta NDA, so I can't repeat it here. Waiting for an official statement by the dev team on this forum.

Edit2: They finally posted it officially:

Yoshida recently posted an update regarding FFXIV 1.0 users being able to try out FFXIV:ARR at launch that I'd like to pass along:

Producer and Director Yoshida here.

I apologize for the delay in preparing various announcements.

With the beginning of official service on 8/27, we will be implementing a two-week long Welcome Back Campaign for those of you who have a FFXIV 1.0 service account, regardless if you are a Legacy Member or if you have Collector’s Edition/Standard Edition. During this time period you can try out FFXIV: ARR for free, so please take this opportunity to check out the game!

Once the date draws closer we will be announcing the details on the Lodestone as well as sending out an email from the development team.