In a baffling move, Final Fantasy 14 players on Xbox will need to have an active Game Pass subscription in order to play the game, in addition to subscribing to the game itself, while PlayStation and PC players will not require any additional subscriptions.
The news comes from a recent blog post revealing the Xbox version’s open beta by Square Enix.
“The Free Trial version, including the open beta test, will not require an Xbox Game Pass (Core or Ultimate) plan to play,” Square Enix wrote . “However, the full Xbox Series X and S version will require an Xbox Game Pass (Core or Ultimate) plan to play.”
There is no explanation as to why Game Pass is an additional requirement to play on Xbox, but it’s possible that it’s part of a deal to bring more Final Fantasy games to the Xbox ecosystem. It should also be noted that this type of requirement is not necessarily new – before phasing it out and rolling it’s perks into Game Pass, Xbox used to require Xbox Live Gold for online functionality.
That was already a bad deal at the time. But the optics here are much, much worse.
The financial burden adds extra sting to the confusion. A 30-day FFXIV subscription will already set you back $14.99 (90 days costs $41.97; 180 days costs $77.94), while the cheapest Game Pass option clocks in at $9.99 monthly. To “optimize” costs, players would need to commit to year-long subscriptions for both, bringing the total to a staggering $17.98/month – nearly $25 if opting for monthly payments.
Where’s the transparency? Where’s the justification?
The silence from Square Enix and Microsoft is deafening.
Xbox players deserve clear answers and, frankly, a better deal.
