A good compromise would have been to give the minion for free with a purchase of FFXIV-specific merchandise (ala the soundtracks), or you can pay a smaller fee for the minion itself and nothing else (so $10 rather than $50).

And what is this BoB I don't even, you don't care about the soundtrack?

On another note, Australia gets screwed again! Can't even access the Europe site as it directs me to the Australian site that has absolutely no merchandise at all and only downloadable games.

I'll have to get my girlfriend's friend in Japan to buy it for me.