A recent update from Square Enix brings changes to the payment processing for Final Fantasy XIV. Tens of thousands of players are being excluded from the game as a result.
What kind of update is this? Recently, there was an update at Square Enix that affects the payment processing. The new requirement is that the address in the Square Enix account must match the address in the payment information for a payment to be processed successfully.
On Reddit, there are now reports from the community that entire regions of players are being excluded from the game. The problem: Many players live in countries that cannot even be listed in their Square Enix accounts.
We cannot enter our country!
As the post creator on Reddit reports, this affects the Southeast Asia region. Players residing in countries within this region cannot specify their location in their Square Enix account, as these countries do not appear in the account settings. He writes in his post on Reddit:
This is a problem for players in Southeast Asia who are not officially supported because they cannot even specify their country or region when creating a Square Enix account. [..] now I and many other players are excluded from ever being able to pay for our subscriptions or make any kind of online purchases.
The player reports that he also contacted Square Enix support regarding this issue. However, the support’s response was unfortunately not satisfactory and did not resolve the problem. He writes:
Customer support said it’s better to create a new account. This is not only stupid because we would lose years of progress on our characters but also because, even if we create a new account, it will still be useless as we cannot enter our country or region!
What does the community say about this? In the comments, other players have come forward expressing their confusion over Square Enix’s actions. It is also mentioned that it is not possible to update the address in the account, for instance after a move. Some of the comments are:
The update also affects people like me who have moved to another region since the account address and the payment address now have to match, but Square still does not allow changing the initial address
, writes a player on RedditYou cannot change your region and you cannot create accounts in a region where you are not located
, notes another commenter on RedditIt still honestly puzzles me that MMOs are still so heavily divided by regions while other service games are globally available by default
, reads another comment on RedditSquare Enix is really good at making it hard to give them money
, writes another player on Reddit
Just recently, there was criticism of the benchmark software for Final Fantasy XIV. With this software, you can check if your hardware is powerful enough to enjoy the upcoming expansion of the game.
The criticism was taken so seriously by Square that the head announced a comprehensive update for the benchmark software.
