Square Enix Announces Online Payment Method ‘Crysta’

Dan Lee 23 Comments

Square Enix has announced a new online payment method for Europe called ‘Crysta.’  Crysta will be available through the Square Enix Account Management System starting today.  The first game to use this will be Final Fantasy XIV, where you will pay for subscriptions using Crysta.
 
Crysta can be purchased in blocks of £5/€5, £10/€10, £20/€20, £30/€30, £50/€50, £100/€100 using a variety of payment processes including credit and debit cards. The current exchange rates in Europe are as follows:
 
100 Crysta = £1 (UK residents only)
100 Crysta = €1 (rest of Europe)
 
We wonder if this will transfer over to the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIV when it releases in March next year.  Whatever happened to good old fashioned money?

Source: Press Release

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23 Comments

  1. I know, what the hell ever did happen to money, I really don’t see the need for all these MS points, PSN network money which all have to be bought with real money anyway.

    • The PSN network uses real money – its just crediting your account with money first, which is a system that’s been in place for years. You can always just use your credit card and pay for things directly (ok you always have to upload £5 if you’re spending less, but I’m guessing that’s more of a logistics thing on their part – payment systems like that generally tend to cost companies money hence why small businesses often charge you for using credit cards on small purchases, or have a minimum purchase). However, we also get the PSN cards which work in exactly the same way as gift vouchers for shops (and is the way in which I think of them) but as you know many shops sell them cheaper than their value, effectively giving us a discount on whatever we buy.

    • By the way, I do completely agree with you about the MS points and crysta, just didn’t think the PSN needed to be lumped into that same category. Probably should have said that in the first comment =P

      • I know I realized after that the PSN is virtually money… this site needs an edit feature!

    • i agree, but at least psn uses actual digital money.

  2. It’s like gambling with chips. People have less trouble losing “fake” money than “real” money. It’s far easier to spend points psychologically.

    • Plus if you buy £100 worth of Crysta (seriosuly, did the not think “Hmm sounds a bit like someone buyng Meth?”) and only spend £20 of it, SquareEnix get to take the interest on the other £80. Also people will forget they have money in there – free money for SE. Same goes for Xbox Live, PSN, etc etc

      • but when you think about it, it’s only virtual stuff you’ll be buying, so it doesn’t really make much difference to them if you buy anything with it or not, you’re paying your sub, and using the server to play, i can’t imagine whether or not you buy a certain piece of armour will affect your server usage or anything, and no raw materials so no cost per item, just the initial cost to create it.

        except when you buy something they can chalk it up as a sale, so they can say they sold x amount of items.

  3. Never mind “old fashioned money”, what’s wrong with gil, hmmm?

    • i dont see why they cant call it gil. Like every single ff game so far lol

      • I thought that too, I think they missed a trick there…

    • Whatever kingdom it was they had likely changed the currency?

    • i would imagine crysta will be used to pay for your subscription (and possibley extra custom items?) wheras gil would remain the in game currency.

      but thats just a guess…

  4. Well that’s 2 minutes of my life I’m never getting back.

    • Awwww poor katy :p

    • :(

    • Someone got out the wrong side of bed (we love you really)

  5. Slightly strange way of converting money.
    Currently £1 is 1.17 euros. So it’s cheaper for the rest of europe compared to the UK, slighlty unfair if you ask me..

    • Exactly – these custom ‘currencies’ are just a convenient way of ripping off customers in certain regions by applying your own custom exchange rate.

      Everyone from Europe is acutely aware on the SCEE blog when something goes on the store with an unfair exchange rate because it’s real money – whereas Microsoft probably get none of that fuss because 800 points is 800 points, and no one seems to pay much attention to how much they pay for them.

      The only advantage is that the exchange rate is fixed, so you don’t get the price discrepancies between releases like you get on the PSN Store, it’s just that in this case it’s fixed to an unfair level for the UK!

  6. i’m waiting for the announcement of the fatigue reset item going on sale, proving the fatigue system was just a money making scheme and not there to level out the playing field between casual and hardcore players.

  7. Stop complaining about the new exchange rates. It’s long been known that video games > international currency exchange. And it’s Crysta and not Gil because the in-game currency will be Gil, I’m guessing. Like Credits and Coins in most online games.

  8. £3.99 for a T-shirt !!!!

  9. i don’t understand how this will convert to the rest of the world,i live in south Africa, right know the rand(south African currency) is 9.17 to the euro making it harder to calculate for points bought, the rand also has a tendency to fluctuate…ALOT… but what i am most afraid of is whether final fantasy XIV will even come to south Africa in the first place, as internet connection is very slow here and it took 2 years after the launch date of final fantasy XI for it to finally be launched here.

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