The gifting feature was taken offline on September 27 and brought back online on October 25. Before the changes, the online store allowed for items purchased to be either redeemed by the buyer for themselves or converted into a gift code for sending to a friend or for a giveaway, as content creators and venues in the game did before the changes. Some of the more popular items for said giveaways were emotes and other cosmetic rewards that came exclusively from the store.
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Now, the new features have been significantly restricted compared to before. Prospective buyers can now only gift items to recipients on their friends list in the game, and gifts are restricted to items that are not account-wide. Purchases such as account-wide mounts, emotes, and minions cannot be gifted anymore and must be used by the buyer. Items that still can be gifted include costume sets, housing items, and the ever-popular vials of Fantasia. Costume items include ones from the ongoing All Saints’ Wake holiday in the game, which are also discounted right now on the online store as part of a seasonal sale.
This news comes one week after the release of Patch 6.25. The changes were made, according to Square Enix, as part of the company’s ongoing effort to combat real money trading (RMT) in the game. The concept of RMT goes against the game’s terms of service, as is the case in most online games today. According to a post by Square Enix on the Final Fantasy 14 Lodestone website, the former gifting feature was used by bad actors and RMT schemers to purchase items via stolen credit cards and resell them on gray market retailers for less than market value. The new feature would make that more difficult, but not impossible, for potential scammers to use that method as a means to launder money.
Community response to the changes has been negative so far on social media and the Final Fantasy 14 official forums. While RMT is a constant problem, the community consensus seems to be that the gifting changes will do more harm than good for player and community engagement. Whether Square Enix sticks to their guns or changes its stance on the matter remains to be seen.
However, players will have plenty to look forward to soon, as Patch 6.28 releases on November 1. The patch will include job balance updates and the new Dynamis Datacenter for North American players to enjoy as they see fit.
Final Fantasy 14 is available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.
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