AnyFinal Fantasy XIVplayer will know by now, considering thedeluge of memesacross the internet, thatFFXIVand Mountain Dew Gamingare working together on a promotion that provides prizes both in and out of the virtual world. But for those excluded from events, it’s not much fun.
The bummer here is that the Mountain Dew Gaming partnership isn’t for all players on the North American Data Centers — theterms and conditionsstate it’s for residents of the United States only — so that excludes a lot of players typically in that region. And for physical prizes, there’s no shipping outside of the continental US.
Of course, more region locked codes have frustrated players excluded again, particularly those in North American Data Centers but not US residents. The responses toFinal Fantasy XIV’sofficial Twitter account demonstrate as much.
We’re excited to partner with@MTNDEWGamingto offer fun rewards!Please note that the Mountain Zu/Sparkling Citrus Refreshment item codes cannot be redeemed on Mog Station until Dawntrail early access. Attempting to redeem before then will display an “invalid code” error.https://t.co/GYGvNT6cWA
The complaints are pretty evenly spread betweenCanadian playersupset and confused they aren’t included, and those in theUK and EUlamenting that we don’t even seem to get thrown the scraps of these promotions.
There’s onecommon themeamong the comments – why are these promotions region locked? This isn’t the first time that North America (or a select part of it) has benefited from a promotion while the rest of us could only look on longingly. Off the top of my head, I can name two that happened in 2021:
Admittedly, the Eat Pizza emote is now available to purchase on theFFXIVOnline Store, but the Chocorpokkur mount is still only owned by those in the USA.
Of course, there are other promotions, such as the Japan-exclusive KFC promotion, which provides players with the ‘Eat Chicken’ emote. But I’d like to mention here that the only promotion that happened in the EU wasthis oneback in 2016, which didn’t make it to the UK.
During the May 16 Live Letter stream, Yoshida noted EU Data Center players should shout out ideas and partnerships they’d like to see. It’s a nice gesture and all, but it’s been a while, and even if you play on one of the Data Centers typically of a certain region, there’s no guarantee you’re included.
Maybe I’m just salty. After all, I am a British player on North American servers, so I will soon have the Mountain Dew exclusive rewards in front of my face with no way of earning them, while my American friends discuss how much Mountain Dew they need to buy to get cool items.
