Did I have to buy Heavensward?

Question

I just purchased a PS4 system and one of the games I've heard a lot of hype on was Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. Without hesitation, and without reading the box, I purchased the game. When I got home I saw on the box "Requires Realm Reborn to play". Much to my disappointment, I made the trek back up to my local Gamestop to pick up Realm Reborn.

Long story short, I ended up having to download Realm Reborn off the PS Store. After the first update, the icon on the home screen changed to Heavensward, which I thought was odd seeing as I never even inserted the Heavensward disc up to this point. Now the game is doing another big update, and I haven't even been able to play yet.

Is the game updating to include Heavensward? Did I even have to purchase the extra disc?

Answer 1

Yes, in order to play the Heavensward content or increase the level cap, you still need to own Heavensward in addition to the base game. The title graphic on the PS4 changes to say "Heavensward" once you patch the game to version 3.0 regardless of whether your Square-Enix account has a Heavensward license on it or not. If you don't have it purchased, once you actually get into the game you just won't be able to enter the new zones, play the new jobs, or progress past level 50.

It might vary by region, but in the US there is actually a bundle on the PlayStation store that contains both Heavensward and the base game, but if you just bought the Heavensward "add-on" you did still need to get a copy of "A Realm Reborn," the base game.