I just really think the FFXIV staff didn't fully think this through (unless their true intention was to encourage more non-steam ffxiv purchases, but I don't think they were playing such 4D chess in this case, it's easier to explain this as a result of incompetency.) (as people will much much prefer the non-steam version). I think the funniest part about this is Square Enix likely implemented this security change to protect their business relationship with Valve, but it's likely going to have the opposite effect. punishes the purchaser and rewards the pirater/person circumnavigating the drm) I would think that makes the non-steam version the definitive version to buy currently, and yet another example of how drm often, even unintentionally, has anti-consumer effects.
Ffxiv quick launcher windows#
This was an exploit that was first performed using a Windows steam entry editor that Glorious Eggroll eventually implemented into Linux in his Proton-GE. Wait are you telling me that Square Enix went to all this trouble to enhance the security of the steam xiv launcher, to ensure that you have to start the game from the steam account that owns the same steam-pc FFXIV account, but Square Enix didn't fix the extremely easy long-standing exploit to simply add "NOSTEAM=1" added by Glorious Eggroll for non-steam FFXIV players to launch the game from steam? (that basically just allows you to use the non-steam version by taking away the flags that say you are booting the steam version). However given that Gaben himself plays ffxiv on the steam deck, and valve has a vested interest in having ffxiv playable on the steam deck, they could possibly step in to to help square make ffxiv more steam deck friendly, like they did with linux EAC support for example. XIVlauncher's devs have also been steadfast in supporting linux and now steam deck support as well, they will likely be the ones to be relied upon. Basically the developers of XIVlauncher have replicated the hash algorithm used by the vanilla launcher, basically XIVlauncher hashes the game's boot files in exactly the same way as the vanilla launcher.
![ffxiv quick launcher ffxiv quick launcher](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9eTIEnuvq8M/UELEh0c1ogI/AAAAAAAAB4g/4_wN5vVCjmk/s1600/56.jpg)
They know that this compromises their steam version (as it allows people to buy the non-steam version and masquerade as steam users), so they probably did this change primarily to prevent problems in their relationship with valve.įor steam linux ffxiv users, their best bet in the short term will be using xivlauncher, as the xivlauncher people are working on a fix for xivlauncher to launch steam linux ffxiv as we speak.
Ffxiv quick launcher trial#
The real reason they probably implemented the change is because people discovered that you could launch non-steam ffxiv from steam in either the free trial or the normal ffxiv by simply editing the game's steam config under the hood.