The launcher sometimes gets disconnected or sluggish when installing a game or updating patches. If this becomes a serious problem, you can download FFXIVQuickLauncher.
- Is FFXIV Free to Play? Do I Need a Subscription?
- What’s the Payment Model?
- What Types of Subscriptions are There?
- Do I Have to Buy Every Expansion?
- Pre-ordering the Upcoming Expansion
- The Latest Expansion
- FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker
- Standard Edition
- PlayStation®5 | PlayStation®4 | Windows® | Mac | Steam
- Digital Collector’s Edition > Details
- PlayStation®5 | PlayStation®4 | Windows® | Mac | Steam
- Package Contents Summary
- Which Version of Final Fantasy 14 Should You Buy?
- Final Fantasy 14 Accounts And Cross-Play
- Platforms
- Installation
- NVIDIA’s purchase of Arm now seems unlikely to go through
- Mechanics of FF14 Housing
- The Process of Getting a House
- Final Fantasy XIV is so popular, Square Enix are stopping selling it
- Tagged With
- Support Rock Paper Shotgun
Is FFXIV Free to Play? Do I Need a Subscription?
The hugely popular MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV Online, releases new features and content every few months and will be available for many years to come.
Its latest expansion, Shadowbringers, has received a lot of praise and has attracted tons of new players, showing that it’s never too late to start playing.
If you want to try it out for yourself, here’s what you need to know about buying a game that is available for PS4, PC, and Mac.
What’s the Payment Model?
Final Fantasy XIV Online (aka FFXIV) is a subscription-based MMORPG, meaning it requires purchase of the base game, add-on, and subscription. There is also a free trial with no time limit but with a level cap and some social restrictions. More details on this in a moment.
To purchase the game, the payment model requires the purchase of the base game, also known as the Starter Edition. Starting in patch 5.3, the Starter Edition includes the original release (A Realm Reborn) up to level 50, as well as the first expansion pack, Heavensward, and its content up to level 60.
If you know you are going to buy extensions anyway, you can alternatively purchase the Complete Edition which includes the Starter Edition with all the current extensions. As long as it doesn’t involve selling, there’s no benefit in terms of savings, it’s just more convenient than making two purchases.
The base game registration for Starter Edition or Complete Edition includes 30 days of play time. After these 30 days, you will have to pay a subscription fee to continue playing.
What Types of Subscriptions are There?
There are 2 types of subscription: Entry (which allows you to create up to 8 characters, all on separate worlds) and Standard (which allows you to create up to 40 characters, with a maximum of 8 in one world).
Entry subscriptions must be purchased monthly, while for Standard subscriptions you can choose to be billed monthly, every 3 months (with a small discount) or every 6 months (with a larger discount, then the price is the same as the Entry subscription).
Sometimes people ask this, so it’s worth noting that subscription time is counted down in real time, not the time spent playing the game! Additionally, the game will be unavailable 24 hours for maintenance roughly every 3 months for major updates, so plan your playtime accordingly!
Do I Have to Buy Every Expansion?
There are currently three expansions available: Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers which level up to 60, 70, and 80 respectively, unfold the main story, and offer lots of other content, including more races and competitions (what this game calls “classes”) in some others games).
Unlike some games, the expansions in FFXIV are linear, meaning you cannot play them out of order or play any of them without first completing the base game.
As they are linear, Square Enix will always include all previous extensions for free when you purchase the newest one. In fact, they don’t even sell past extensions on their own. So if you’re trying to catch up, you’d just buy Shadowbringers including Heavensward and Stormblood.
This is great for new players as you only need to purchase the latest extension. Of course, when a new extension comes out, you will still have to purchase it to enjoy the new content, even if you have everything up to that point. Historically, new additions come out every two years.
Pre-ordering the Upcoming Expansion
Speaking of new additions, Endwalker is due out on November 23, 2021. It will raise the level cap to 90, introduce a new playable race (Male Viera) and two new playable jobs: Sage (Healer) and Reaper (Healer) DPS Melee).
Again, this doesn’t mean you can play for free up to level 60. It means that if you haven’t bought the game, you can try it up to level 60. If you bought the game then wait for subscription you won’t be able to login even for the content below level 60.
The Latest Expansion
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker
* This is the latest FINAL FANTASY XIV Expansion Pack and is intended for existing users who own the full version of FINAL FANTASY XIV as this product cannot be played alone. To register this product, you will need a method to play FINAL FANTASY XIV which does not include the free trial.
* Registering this product also gives users access to Stormblood and Shadowbringers. Show me the details.
Standard Edition
PlayStation®5 | PlayStation®4 | Windows® | Mac | Steam
Digital Collector’s Edition > Details
PlayStation®5 | PlayStation®4 | Windows® | Mac | Steam
Package Contents Summary
The rebirth of the kingdom | Towards heaven | Storm Blood | Shadow Bearers | Endwalker | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Starter Edition | 〇 | 〇 | – | – | – |
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online – Full Edition * 1 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker * 1 * 2 | – | – | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
* 1 Collector’s Edition also includes in-game bonus items.
* 2 This is the latest FINAL FANTASY XIV Expansion Pack and requires installation and registration of the base game FINAL FANTASY XIV in order to play. A Free Trial account alone is not sufficient.
To play Endwalker: Starter Edition, A Realm Reborn, or Complete Edition (sold prior to July 2, 2019), users must purchase and register one of the options below).
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Starter Edition | |
---|---|
The rebirth of the kingdom | 〇 |
Towards heaven | 〇 |
Storm Blood | – |
Shadow Bearers | – |
Endwalker | – |
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online – Full Edition * 1 | |
---|---|
The rebirth of the kingdom | 〇 |
Towards heaven | 〇 |
Storm Blood | 〇 |
Shadow Bearers | 〇 |
Endwalker | 〇 |
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker * 1 * 2 | |
---|---|
The rebirth of the kingdom | – |
Towards heaven | – |
Storm Blood | 〇 |
Shadow Bearers | 〇 |
Endwalker | 〇 |
* 1 Collector’s Edition also includes in-game bonus items.
* 2 This is the latest FINAL FANTASY XIV Expansion Pack and requires installation and registration of the base game FINAL FANTASY XIV in order to play. A Free Trial account alone is not sufficient.
To play Endwalker: Starter Edition, A Realm Reborn, or Complete Edition (sold prior to July 2, 2019), users must purchase and register one of the options below).
There is a restriction that only allows one personal home per account. With that in mind, you may also have access to your Free Company estate. In addition, you can also have a private apartment in the game.
Which Version of Final Fantasy 14 Should You Buy?
Final Fantasy 14’s account system can be quite confusing, making purchasing the correct version a painful experience in itself. One thing to keep in mind if you decide to buy Final Fantasy 14 is that it is a subscription-based MMORPG. As in World of Warcraft, in order to continue playing after 30 days of first purchasing the game, you will still need to pay the monthly subscription which costs € 12.99 for 30 days of play (approximately Rs 1145). There are also options to buy larger subscriptions, such as paying around £ 66 for 180 days (around Rs 5,825).
The most obvious version to buy would be Final Fantasy 14 Online Starter Edition. The Starter Edition is essentially the same content as the Free Trial, but without any limitations until the end of the Heavensward extension. To continue the game, you can purchase Shadowbringers directly to access both Shadowbringers, as well as the direct sequel to Heavensward, Stormblood.
If, after playing the free trial, you’ve decided that Final Fantasy 14 Online is definitely the game you want to invest more time in, when you purchase the Complete Edition, you will receive the entire game, up to Shadowbringers, along with a few cosmetics available in the game. Basically, this makes it possible for you to continue playing after completing the Heavensward story until the content of the latest update.
Final Fantasy 14 Online Starter Edition costs Rs. 719 on Steam and € 9.99 (around 881 rupees) from the Square Enix Store. Shadowbringers is priced at Rs. 2519 on Steam and 34.99 € (about 3088 rupees) at the Square Enix Store. The PS4 and PS5 version includes all content and is available for Rs. 1831 during the Days of Play sale, though it usually costs Rs. 4578 from PlayStation Store.
Final Fantasy 14 Accounts And Cross-Play
Now the most confusing thing about trying to play Final Fantasy 14 – its account system. No matter where you buy and play, Final Fantasy 14 needs a Square Enix account to play and manage its subscriptions. This can be a hassle as there can only be one Square Enix account associated with each platform. This means that if you buy it for PC through Steam, you’ll have to play it on Steam always, including future expansions, unless you don’t mind buying a fresh copy from the Square Enix Store and starting over with new characters.
The PlayStation version is capable of multi-platform multiplayer with the PC version. It also means that the same player can play both PC and PS4 or PS5 with the same account. However, this means that you cannot accidentally link another Square Enix account to your PlayStation account. It also requires a lot of Final Fantasy 14 purchases for a variety of platforms. If you have a Square Enix account linked to your PS4 / PS5 account and hope to change it, you’ll have to struggle with Sony and Square Enix customer support. While this is difficult and potentially frustrating, it is possible.
For the latest game news and reviews, follow IGN India on Twitter and Facebook. To see the latest gaming videos, follow us on Instagram.
You can also buy a job level boost to level up a single job up to 70. This will advance your character in that job (remember that you can play any and all jobs on one character) and carry out all of these quests up to this point. You will also receive a set of suitable gear and 500,000 gills, although a bullfinch is not that hard to come by in this game.
Platforms
Final Fantasy XIV is available on the following platforms:
A Playstation Plus subscription is not required to play on PS4 or PS5. If you want to play on multiple platforms with one account, you will need to purchase the game for each of these platforms. After registering the base game on a new platform, you will receive another free month.
The region of your account also matters. If you have a European account, you cannot buy or register the North American version of the game.
Steam and PC are considered to be two different platforms and are mutually exclusive. You cannot own the game on both of these platforms. You cannot log into the game via the Steam client if you already have a regular game outside of Steam on PC and vice versa.
You cannot buy a game on one platform and then purchase an add-on on the other. You can’t run a trial on Steam and then buy the game from their website, in which case you’ll need to create a new account.
If you own the game on Steam, you can pay for subscription and optional store items with cash using your Steam Wallet.
Installation
The Final Fantasy XIV launcher uses Internet Explorer weirdly to display certain information. Even if you have never used Internet Explorer, you must do so in order to use the launcher.
The launcher sometimes gets disconnected or sluggish when installing a game or updating patches. If this becomes a serious problem, you can download FFXIVQuickLauncher.
Entry subscriptions must be purchased monthly, while for Standard subscriptions you can choose to be billed monthly, every 3 months (with a small discount) or every 6 months (with a larger discount, then the price is the same as the Entry subscription).
NVIDIA’s purchase of Arm now seems unlikely to go through
NVIDIA announced its acquisition of Arm in 2020. Currently, reports suggest that the purchase may not be finalized as it is unlikely to overcome regulatory hurdles.
Do you spend all day in Microsoft Teams conference calls? Need a new webcam? Microsoft has given you a “Modern Webcam” with 1080p shooter, wide field of view and more.
Mechanics of FF14 Housing
FFXIV building plots and houses come in three sizes: small, medium and large. They allow players to build a cabin, house, and mansion, respectively. The type of your home depends entirely on the size of the plot. Even if for some reason you wanted to build a smaller house on a larger piece of land, it is impossible. Overall, getting any plot that is larger than small is extremely difficult. Getting any kind of land can be quite a challenge if you are playing on one of the more populated servers. Fortunately, there are also some more feasible options. The player can always buy an apartment in one apartment or get a private room (personal room) in the house of the Free Company. Technically speaking, you can own two houses – Personal and FC.
As you probably know, Free Companies is the equivalent of guilds or clans in other MMORPGs in FFXIV. The estates of the Free Company serve as guild headquarters. That being said, in addition to the communal area open to all members, anyone can also spend some Gil and get a private room to furnish and decorate. In addition, the houses of Wolna Kompania also have Company Workshops and Chocobo Stables. Personal homes do not have these features, but you can share your home with up to 3 friends via the rental system. There are residential estates in Eorzea in four cities – you can live in The Mist in Limsa Lominsa, Lavender Beds in Gridania, The Goblet in Ul’dah and Shirogane in Kugane. These districts are further divided into wards and then plots.
Finally, home ownership gives you access to a unique activity – gardening. It is, in a way, connected with two gathering classes – the Botanist and the Miner. Botanists can collect seeds that can be planted later, and miners can collect special types of soil that are necessary to grow certain plants. While there are items that can only be obtained through Gardening, this is not a separate profession. You cannot be promoted as a gardener and you do not gain any skills with it. Finally, players can fertilize the soil, nurture plants, and ultimately harvest the crops.
The Process of Getting a House
As we already mentioned, you need land to build a house. The limited number of building plots and the large number of players looking to buy a house (at least on most servers) make this step the most difficult. Plots can only be purchased directly from the game. In order to buy a piece of land, you will always need to check if there are any available. If you try to look for plots for sale, you will quickly notice that small plots are the vast majority of what you can get. If you want something different, you have to be really patient and prepare for the long wait.
Depending on the size and class of the plot, the price can range from 3,000,000 Gil to even 50,000,000 Gil. As you can see, happiness is not the only thing you will need. Sure, you’ll get some Gil while you play the game, but just reading the main story may not be enough to cover that cost. Moreover, your character must be at least level 50 in at least one class. They also need the rank of second lieutenant in their Grand Company. As you may know, the Grand Companies are the three factions of NPCs in the game – The Maelstrom, The Immortal Flames, and The Order of Twin Adder. After purchasing a plot of land, you have 45 days to build a house. If you don’t, the land will return to the game and become available to other players.
In the beginning, players could own multiple plots and trade them freely. This caused a small group of people to take control of the entire land and raise prices for all the other players. For this reason, Square Enix limited one package per account and made it impossible to trade them. However, it was still possible to sync by releasing the story with another player by purchasing it immediately. It wasn’t 100% safe, but it was very possible. Therefore, the authors introduced a hidden random timer after which the plot becomes available.
This made trading land virtually impossible (or at least extremely risky and inconvenient). Note that this timer does not apply to players who wish to transfer a home they already own. You will have to pay a lot of Gils for it, but you will be able to move to your favorite district. Therefore, trying to get any kind of storyline might be a good idea. If you have Gil’s supply, you might be able to benefit from the move later.
After you get the land, you need to buy a building permit. Its price varies depending on the size of your home, but is generally much cheaper than the land itself. Moreover, there is no need to wait for a vacancy, which makes this part of the process much easier. Then you can customize and decorate both the interior and exterior of your home. You can arrange and move furniture, customize the design of your home, choose floors, wallpaper, lighting and much more. Of course, this part of the game will only appeal to a very specific group of players. Keep in mind that housing is not a mandatory part of the game at all. Overall, Free Company should have a headquarters, but you won’t need a private home to be successful at any point in the game.
There are fewer restrictions on housing – they are also much easier to obtain. In fact, any gamer who wants to spend 500,000 gil should be able to find a flat. There is a limit of one apartment per character (instead of an account, as is the case with plots) and they cannot be split or traded between players. Moreover, the apartment will remain assigned to your character, even if you become inactive. In addition, in each apartment building there is a shared chocobo stable available to all tenants.
Basic Membership allows you to create a total of eight characters and only one per server. Since you can switch classes on one character, and since you can’t easily share items between your characters, it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to alt.
Final Fantasy XIV is so popular, Square Enix are stopping selling it
Final Fantasy XIV is making it a success, thanks in part to the recently released Endwalker expansion. Despite updates to mitigate server bugs and long waiting times, players still have trouble logging into the game. So Square Enix just went and did it. They temporarily suspended sales of the game, as well as new registrations for a free trial. Even the ads are on hold for the time being.
Final Fantasy XIV Starter Edition and Complete Edition sales, as well as free trial registrations will not be available for a while. According to a post by producer and director Naoki Yoshida: “These temporary suspensions will be implemented in the next few days as we work with our trading partners.”
There is no set date for their return to the stores at the moment. Yoshida says they will “continue to monitor the situation, taking into account when sales resume.” The Collector’s Edition add-ons and digital upgrades will still be available at least to current players, so you can upgrade your game without any hassle.
Players recently received 7 days of free play time to make up for all the antics of the server. Well, Squeenix is granting an extra 14 days of free play time to make the apology even more. This bonus will apply to everyone who has the full game and an active subscription from December 21 at 00:00 PST (which is 8:00 GMT and 03:00 EST).
Yoshida also presents an update on his plans to strengthen Final Fantasy XIV’s server infrastructure.
“We are considering adding servers to each region, especially planning a large-scale addition in North America and Europe, and we will be analyzing the number of servers, infrastructure build time, power issues and server rack health to see if we should do it sequentially or one large pressure. Either way, we plan to roll out a large number of additions that we intend to carry out quickly and safely with as little inconvenience as possible for our players, and will continue on this as we progress.”
Square Enix previously said their server expansion plans have been held back by an ongoing global hardware shortage.
They also plan to release a server roadmap by the end of January 2022. No battle passes or cosmetics in sight – just talking to the server, which actually sounds pretty good.
It’s weird to see the game actually removed from the stores because it’s too popular. I like to think Yoshi-P and his team are wiping their tears with loads of well-deserved yen. Well done, you made a game so popular that you had to take it out of sale. It’s metal.
Tagged With
Senior Staff Writer
When Ed doesn’t smash the bandits with his bikes in the Yakuza, he’s likely to be brandishing a badminton racket in real life. Every species goes, but he is very fond of shooters and likes heavy weapons, especially if they have a chainsaw attached to them. She loves orange squash and mangoes, and is not sure about olives.
Support Rock Paper Shotgun
Subscribe and access members only articles, ad-free reading, free gifts and game discounts. Your support helps us create more great content about PC games.