A part of the community of Final Fantasy XIV is currently making Square Enix feel their wrath: The popular mod Mare Synchronos
has been taken offline and players suspect the developers behind this move.
What function did Mare Synchronos
have? The mod allowed players to share mods more easily with each other and view the mods their fellow players were using. Two players using Mare could see each other’s individual modifications, including hairstyles and outfits, as well as custom emotes.
Why is Mare Synchronos
going offline? On August 21, 2025, the developers of the mod Mare Synchronos announced that they would be taking their project offline after about three years. In a post on their Discord regarding the mod, they state that the team had received a legal inquiry regarding the project
. No further details about the background, such as who made the inquiry, have been provided.
The modder’s statement on Discord
See the sun set, the day is ending
With a heavy heart, I have to announce the end of Mare Synchronos as you know it.
I’ve received a legal inquiry concerning the project. After reviewing my options with counsel, I’m winding it down.
Effective immediately:
- The Discord server will be limited to the general chat with a heavy slow mode.
- The registration will be closed, and the bot services will be out of commission.
- The repositories for client, server, and api will also be removed as per this announcement.
- I will be removing all Patreon/Ko-Fi memberships and disable the tiers
The server will continue to run until Friday, August 22, 2025 5:00 AM, after that, the server will shut down, and the main repository will be removed as well. Enjoy your last doomsday party.
Please avoid speculation or harassment in any form or fashion towards anyone involved. I will not be sharing any legal details, and I ask that you don’t contact any third parties about this.
Thank you for the past 3 years of Mare, I hope you enjoyed the ride.
If you feel generous and like to leave a one-time tip for my work, you can do so on http://ko-fi.com/darkarchon – absolutely optional and no perks involved. The funds are solely a donation towards me, not a legal fund.
The mod enjoyed great popularity in the highly active role-playing community of Final Fantasy XIV. This community is now in an uproar after the shutdown and is blaming Square Enix in various online forums. Including review-bombing on Steam.
Are you taking my favorite toy? I’m review-bombing you
What does the feedback look like specifically? Players are expressing their anger in Steam reviews for Final Fantasy XIV. Since August 21, Dawntrail has been receiving increasingly negative reviews, some of which explicitly mention or allude to the shutdown of Mare as a specific reason. Here are a few excerpts:
- :ly:
Square Enix, what the hell are you doing? Killing Mare Synchronos – the ONLY tool that actually allows players to share their own looks and experiences – is a complete affront to the entire community. You have done nothing to provide us with proper tools for self-expression, and now you are shutting down the only real solution we had.
- n0m3Cy:
Good luck getting rid of what has kept your player base alive during this content drought.
- Polariswright:
I really love this game, and based on my playtime, you can see that is true. But it is very sad to see that SE no longer cares about the roleplay community. It is just sad to know that they are clearly aware of the community (after all, they themselves adopted a mod and brought it into the game as a feature – the speech bubbles in chat), yet refuse to recognize what people want. They refuse to make the game playable without external tools. […]
- Deepshot:
And what’s wrong with wanting to share cute outfits with my MMO friends after having to deal with that damn sloppily put together Dawntrail main story that feels as stale as content from 10 years ago? Well, can’t do that – the addon has been banned. […]
Also in a Reddit post with over 4,800 upvotes and more than 3,100 comments, they are expressing their frustration and discussing what comes next and what the possible reasons could be. Similar discussions are happening in this Reddit thread.
Even in the official forum, there are now two discussions where players are exchanging pages of opinions regarding the shutdown. For player Tykku, it is clear that this decision means the end of the game (via the official forum). In a second thread, speculation about the background is taking place.
Additionally, more and more players are also speaking up on X.com and TikTok.
What Square Enix doesn’t know doesn’t really bother them
What is Square Enix’s general stance on mods? Many players who are now speaking out on various social media platforms hold the publisher and developer Square Enix responsible. For many of them, the shutdown can only rest on their shoulders, even if this has not been secured or publicly acknowledged yet.
However: Final Fantasy XIV and Square Enix as the publisher do not generally allow mods or third-party tools in the MMORPG. Additionally, the company often takes mods offline. For example, in January 2025, a mod that allowed the extraction of information on all characters of an account was taken down. This tool could have been used for stalking.
In general, however, mods are not a topic for developers as long as they do not interfere with gameplay or are not used for cheating. A communication mod that displayed chat conversations as speech bubbles above characters was even the basis for such a feature, which was implemented with patch 7.3. Otherwise, it seems to be that what the developers do not officially know is tacitly tolerated.
The mod Mare itself does not interfere with gameplay but primarily allows for cosmetic changes and easier sharing of mods. This was possible before Mare, but it was much more complicated. Consequently, the role-playing community is now very angry.
