Many players in the Final Fantasy XIV community are quite restless right now, and no, it’s not because of new gameplay content or exciting new quests. This time, all the hubbub comes from the recent addition of a pizza emote to the game’s microtransaction store. Yes one pizza emoticon.
You see, about two years ago, in December 2021, Square Enix held a promotional event with GrubHub during the Game Awards. By using the delivery service to order at least $15 worth of food during the night of the show, then using the promo code “ENDWALKER” at checkout, you can receive a code sent to your email address one day later, once used. , would unlock the exclusive /eatpizza emote in FFXIV.
Unfortunately, things took a rather disastrous turn very quickly. Tons of people never received the code despite ordering $15 or more worth of food, and many of those who did had to fight tooth and nail with GrubHub customer service staff for days. The Fine Print of GrubHub did say availability was limited, but that was never made clear, and also… it’s a digital item. Any “limited offer” is completely artificial.
“Honestly, I think the customer service reps have no idea what they’re talking about. This one says it’s a lottery. Others say there were a limited number of codes and that it “was first come, first served, but aren’t even informed. consistent with what that limit even was,” u/Shizucheese wrote in a Reddit thread about the scandal. “I know I saw someone post that a Grubhub rep told them you had to place two orders to be eligible. Others say there was a glitch in the system and the code didn’t work. was not applied to some people’s orders, and if it doesn’t apply to yours, then you are SoL.
Then came the eBay sales. Once people who had received their code as they were supposed to realized how lucky they were, many of them began listing their pizza emoji codes on consumer-to-consumer sites. Suddenly these codes were selling for $200 or more, with one going as high as $500.
That brings us to today and Square Enix’s surprise announcement that the /eatpizza emote can now, two years after the aforementioned debacle, be purchased from the Final Fantasy XIV online store for $7. Unsurprisingly, the community’s reaction to this decision has been rather mixed, although I would say it’s mostly positive overall.
On one hand, you have people who wish they could recoup all the time they spent fighting GrubHub service reps for their code. There are also the people who never received their code and are frustrated that they have to spend even more money than they already have on expensive food delivery just to get that stupid pizza emote. Some are miffed that their rare and exclusive emote has also become much less exclusive, which is not surprising.
“After ALL this hell of fighting GrubHub for months only to have them finally spit out the code… I’m a little salty,” u/Rynn21 wrote on the r/FFXIV subreddit. “I’m glad we can get it, but so many people have been scammed by Grubhub that I wish it was free,” says @griffon_rex on X (formerly Twitter).
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But on the other side of the coin, you have all the players who are just happy to have a chance to get the emote because either they weren’t playing FFXIV at the time or they missed the promo , or they don’t. live in the United States (only North American Square Enix accounts were eligible for the event). There are some grumbles about the rather steep $7 price tag, but overall most people are just excited to finally be able to give their Warrior of Light a slice to munch on.
The decision to tone down the “fear of missing out” (FOMO) factor of this limited-time event isn’t one anyone expected, and has players wondering if we might see the exclusive /eatchicken emote to KFC Japan become more widely. available afterwards. Given that the handling of the GrubHub promotion was particularly terrible, Square Enix might just be feeling generous with their pizza.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is currently available on Windows PC, PS4 and PS5, with the Xbox version available in Spring 2024. best PC games, and notably, the Complete Edition includes all its DLC and 30 days of gameplay for $60. This makes it the best way to get started and access its full suite of content.
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