SE vs Steam version

[Scalinder]

Is there any difference playing the game and buying expansions through Steam versus the Square Enix launcher? Which has discounts more often?

[Luxia]

Don't ever expect sales on the Steam versions of the expansions apart from the big Steam seasonal sales - so spring, summer, autumn, winter. The SE version runs sales significantly more often, so if you care about that - make an account there.

[Cuponoodle]

you'll get far better discounts outside of steam. Mostly due to the access to sites like GreenManGaming. I bought 10 copies of endwalker pre-release for around 20% off. Steam will have higher prices most the time.

Other than discounts and more buying options they are sorta identical, Unless region pricing comes into play then I hear steam is better. I guess steam tracks your game time sorta but the game does that...

[Seera1024]

Originally posted by Cuponoodle:

you'll get far better discounts outside of steam. Mostly due to the access to sites like GreenManGaming. I bought 10 copies of endwalker pre-release for around 20% off. Steam will have higher prices most the time.

Other than discounts and more buying options they are sorta identical, Unless region pricing comes into play then I hear steam is better. I guess steam tracks your game time sorta but the game does that...

Be careful using third party non-official sites for getting keys. While some of them may be legit and police their users who sell keys obtained through illegally obtained credit card information, you have no way to guarantee that the key you bought is a key obtained by a card the seller had permission to use or not. And of course, there are sites out there that are not legit.

Many times when the card used to buy the key is discovered to have had fraudulent charges, those charges get reversed. And they get reversed via chargebacks. Many companies have strict ban the accounts of those whose keys are refunded via chargebacks.

So weigh the costs you save vs the risk of getting a hold of such key and decide if that's a risk you want to take or not. Some sites will have a higher risk than others.

As I don't find any risk acceptable, I don't know how legit of a site greenmangaming is. Up to you to decide what your level of acceptable risk is.

[hagare]

Just more gatekeeping with steam

[Valentino]

the sales on steam store expansions are very consistently a month-month and a half after they go on sale on the squareenix website. Has been since the launch on steam. Think of it as an offset. Not sure why people are saying otherwise.

It really doesn't matter which one you purchase decide to use now. I will say you can use your steam wallet to pay your sub which is important for some people.

Also just a reminder, buying on steam doesn't lock you out of mogstation purchases, just to add to/avoid confusion. So you could for instance get a standard edition on steam and later upgrade through the mogstation or purchase mounts, etc.

tl;dr it doesn't really matter anymore.

[Fal]

both versions are the same, steam has the extra API loading giving you an additional overlay, screenshot and stream option, plus steam have the extra security token so its really hard to get your account stolen and gives you the option to buy things on FFXIV store and pay your sub using the steam wallet, as for the discounts steam usually have only during the big sales, SE version have the big ones and the small anniversary of the franchise ones but that's kind minor since you buy it only once and if you keep playing you'll probably buy the next DLC on release, meaning no discounts at all in both stores

[Cuponoodle]

Originally posted by Seera1024:

Originally posted by Cuponoodle:

you'll get far better discounts outside of steam. Mostly due to the access to sites like GreenManGaming. I bought 10 copies of endwalker pre-release for around 20% off. Steam will have higher prices most the time.

Other than discounts and more buying options they are sorta identical, Unless region pricing comes into play then I hear steam is better. I guess steam tracks your game time sorta but the game does that...

Be careful using third party non-official sites for getting keys. While some of them may be legit and police their users who sell keys obtained through illegally obtained credit card information, you have no way to guarantee that the key you bought is a key obtained by a card the seller had permission to use or not. And of course, there are sites out there that are not legit.

Many times when the card used to buy the key is discovered to have had fraudulent charges, those charges get reversed. And they get reversed via chargebacks. Many companies have strict ban the accounts of those whose keys are refunded via chargebacks.

So weigh the costs you save vs the risk of getting a hold of such key and decide if that's a risk you want to take or not. Some sites will have a higher risk than others.

As I don't find any risk acceptable, I don't know how legit of a site greenmangaming is. Up to you to decide what your level of acceptable risk is.

I didn't mention an unofficial anything it was greenmangaming which is very very legit. It's not a gray site in the slightest since of the word. There are so many legit sites outside of steam that can be used to avoid the higher prices here on steam. Steam hasn't been the cheapest in years.

[Amateur Nitpicker]

I just know most people have more problems in Steam than the official site BUT I only use steam to begin with... (The discount thing is less of an issue than you can actually play the game and not waste money)

Some of the threads are telling that they can't or the the launcher won't let them through to play?

[weiss]

Originally posted by weird32:

I just know most people have more problems in Steam than the official site BUT I only use steam to begin with... (The discount thing is less of an issue than you can actually play the game and not waste money)

Some of the threads are telling that they can't or the the launcher won't let them through to play?

thats often because peoples dont do the steps correct. some already fail on it to even make an SE account in the first place and come here into the steam forum aswell and complain about it ... which makes no sense xD.

anyways.
there are 2 big adventages when it comes to steam.
1.- access to paypal and being able to use the steam wallet to renew your subscription. you do not have access to paypal with a normal SE account.
2.- since the new security update is it way harder to steal your account. even if someone manages to break into your SE account and changes everything and so forth would he still need your steam account to launch the game. you can not longer launch the game with a 3rd party launcher without being logged in with your steam account and having the steam client open. so, its basicly a 4factor auth if you have 2 factor on SE and steam active.

tho the disadventages are
- addons are rarely on sale here. so, its overall more expensive.
- your account will only accept steam addon keys, that means if a retailer sells for example the endwalker addon for like 15$ but here on stean is it still 40$ is the retailer key mostlikely not a steam key and therefore will not work.
- linking the steam account properly to your SE account can be somewhat complicated if you dont follow the steps properly (which by the way a lot of peoples dont do <,< and for some reason even manage to link the wrong account which is still beyond me how that even happens)

so yea, if you want to take the higher security and the adventage to have access to paypal and steam wallet usage over the disadventages should you go with steam, if you dont care much about paypal and security and think the 2factor outh from SE is already enough and you dont wanna go through the shinanigens with the link stuff, stay with a normal SE account ^^.

[Seera1024]

Originally posted by Cuponoodle:

Originally posted by Seera1024:

Be careful using third party non-official sites for getting keys. While some of them may be legit and police their users who sell keys obtained through illegally obtained credit card information, you have no way to guarantee that the key you bought is a key obtained by a card the seller had permission to use or not. And of course, there are sites out there that are not legit.

Many times when the card used to buy the key is discovered to have had fraudulent charges, those charges get reversed. And they get reversed via chargebacks. Many companies have strict ban the accounts of those whose keys are refunded via chargebacks.

So weigh the costs you save vs the risk of getting a hold of such key and decide if that's a risk you want to take or not. Some sites will have a higher risk than others.

As I don't find any risk acceptable, I don't know how legit of a site greenmangaming is. Up to you to decide what your level of acceptable risk is.

I didn't mention an unofficial anything it was greenmangaming which is very very legit. It's not a gray site in the slightest since of the word. There are so many legit sites outside of steam that can be used to avoid the higher prices here on steam. Steam hasn't been the cheapest in years.

It's not an official seller, or at least I can't find anything on FFXIV's site that indicates as such. Couldn't find a list of authorized sellers, though.

Anytime you buy a key from someone that's not on the official seller list, you are typically out of luck if there are any issues with the key if the seller doesn't make things right.