On December 3rd, the Early Access of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker will begin, and we at MeinMMO will be tracking the launch in this live ticker. Here you will find the latest information on the server status, including queue lengths and error 2002.
Update December 4th, 2:53 PM: The afternoon went by without major incidents. Square reported no server crashes or further maintenance except for the sky city.
However, the queues are still very long, and players have to wait a long time until it’s their turn. There are also still errors 2002 and 5006 that kick you out of the queues or the game.
Update December 4th, 12:23 PM: The length of the queues is slowly crawling into the thousands. It is expected to be very high again by evening, leading to error 2002.
Update December 4th, 12:06 PM: An emergency maintenance of the area sky city has been announced for all worlds. Most of you will probably not be there, but still try to avoid the zone between 12:30 PM and 12:40 PM.
Update December 4th, 10:07 AM: Things seem to be a bit quieter on Saturday morning. The first reports are of relatively short queues, and we were able to log in to the game very quickly (queue of 54 players).
Square Enix also reported on Lodestone that the optional character renaming service will be temporarily disabled due to high server load.
By the way: the first players are reporting on social media that their ordered Collector’s Edition of Endwalker has arrived. So check your order status; maybe you have a surprise waiting for you today.
Update December 4th, 10:00 AM: Good morning everyone, and welcome back to Error 2002 Savage. A brief summary of yesterday’s events:
- The servers went online on time at 10:00 AM and started the Early Access of Endwalker.
- Long queues formed immediately, reaching into the thousands.
- It was repeatedly accompanied by error 2002, which kicked players out of the queue, forcing them to line up again, which was extremely frustrating for many.
- There were also occasional server crashes on Phoenix, Shiva, or Moogle.
Update December 3rd, 9:26 PM: The problems on Zodiark have been resolved. However, more and more players are now experiencing their queues being canceled. They receive error messages 2002 or similar errors, get kicked out, and have to line up again.
When selecting a character in the character selection menu, “Error 2002” may be displayed. This error occurs when the login server is experiencing high player traffic or when the number of characters in the login queue for each logical data center exceeds 17,000. This measure is in place to prevent the server from crashing due to extreme overload.
If you encounter “Error 2002” while trying to log in, we apologize for the inconvenience and ask you to wait a while before trying again.
Blog post on Lodestone
The error unfortunately cannot be circumvented.
Update December 3rd, 9:08 PM: The Zodiark server is also experiencing technical issues.
Update December 3rd, 8:34 PM: In the meantime, there has been a post on Lodestone regarding some known bugs:
- The color of the job-specific Paladin equipment from Shadowbringers is not displayed correctly. This issue will be resolved in patch 6.01 in two weeks.
- The new feature where NPCs accompany you in your adventures in cities or in the open world is a bit buggy. Some NPCs are floating in the air or standing on water. The error occurs when a particularly large number of players are in an area.
Update December 3rd, 8:09 PM: Shiva has crashed.
Update December 3rd, 8:03 PM: Meanwhile, there have been no server crashes, but technical issues have occurred on the Shiva server that are currently being worked on.
Players are also now reporting queues lasting up to 1.5 hours.
Update December 3rd, 5:43 PM: Briefly there were technical issues on the Moogle server of the European data center Chaos. However, they have now been resolved.
Update December 3rd, 5:00 PM: There have been no further reports of crashes or other issues for now. However, you can still expect longer queues. The screenshots from players on social media and reddit show queues ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 players. It varies by server and data center.
Update December 3rd, 3:27 PM: The issues on the Cerberus server should be resolved.
Update December 3rd, 3:15 PM: A small note to those of you who wanted to change your race for Early Access (e.g., to a male Viera). Due to the server overload, you may find that no character customization options are displayed.
Don’t worry, your Fantasia potions have not been lost. The lobby server cannot retrieve your character’s data at the time of the overload, and accordingly, you cannot change your appearance. In the worst case, you will have to wait until the option becomes available again. However, you will not need to use any additional Fantasia pots.
Update December 3rd, 2:46 PM: There are now also difficulties on the Chaos data center. This time, the Cerberus server is affected. The FFXIV team is working on a solution.
Update December 3rd, 2:00 PM: The issues on Phoenix should now be resolved.
Update December 3rd, 1:34 PM: The issues on Phoenix remain unresolved, and the FFXIV team has reported on Lodestone that they are working on a solution.
Furthermore, the team has reported that the number of players on the servers is currently the highest it has been since the launch of FFXIV. The servers are at their capacity limits. Players in the queues can expect to wait longer to enter the game.
However, queues are stable, and even though it may not seem so, they are progressing.
Update December 3rd, 1:10 PM: Meanwhile, several servers besides Phoenix and Tonberry have been affected by crashes, as reported by the German Twitter account of FFXIV. The developers are working to resolve the issues. As soon as there is more information, there will be another update. We will keep you informed.
Update December 3rd, 12:47 PM: The Phoenix server seems to have experienced a crash. Players report on reddit that they suddenly lost connection and subsequently ended up back in a long queue.
Unfortunately, it seems that players from Phoenix cannot log in to another server through character selection. The queue there exceeds 8,000 players.
Update December 3rd, 12:30 PM: Everything is still calm, no maintenance in sight.
Update December 3rd, 11:34 AM: Currently, the situation regarding the servers seems calm. We will keep our eyes open and keep you informed of any news in case anything happens. The ticker will continue to be updated.
Update December 3rd, 11:03 AM: More and more players are trying to log in to FFXIV, and the queues are getting longer accordingly. Queues of over 6,000 players are now reported.
So far, the servers seem stable. There are no reports of major crashes or disconnects, aside from the usual 2002 and 5006 errors.
It can be expected that the number of players in queues on European servers will continue to rise by evening.
Update December 3rd, 10:46 AM: Aside from the reports of the usual errors 2002 and 5006, most players currently seem to be in queues or have already managed to log in and play.
Due to the overload, it may happen that you cannot see your character on the character selection screen. This is nothing to worry about, as it is just a display error. Just try to log in normally and wait in the queue.
Update December 3rd, 10:30 AM: The FFXIV team has addressed the server overload on Twitter and asked for your patience:
Update December 3rd, 10:22 AM: Queues of over 3,500 players are now being reported. If you want to try to bypass them, you can change the login server in the character selection and try logging in to a different server than your own.
But keep in mind that you will not have access to the inventory of your retainers.
Update December 3rd, 10:18 AM: There are the first reports of error 2002 and the collapse of the lobby servers. If you receive one, try logging in again. The error is meant to prevent server overload and crash when too many players are trying to log in.
The error can also occur while you are in a queue.
Update December 3rd, 10:11 AM: It has been reported on Twitter that there is trolling behavior in the community. Allegedly, severe spoilers that have been datamined from the patch are being sent by bots to members of large servers.
It is unclear whether this is true. However, it is advisable as a precautionary measure to restrict your contacts on Discord so that you only receive messages from people on your friends list. This setting can be changed back later.
Update December 3rd, 10:04 AM: The first queues are now forming. Even though they are long, and initially, it seems as if nothing is moving, continue to stay in the queue. If you drop out, you will be sent back to the end.
Update December 3rd, 10:00 AM: The servers are online.
Due to the surge, there may be errors 5006 and crashes when connecting to the lobby server. Then try logging in again, and you will eventually get through.
Update December 3rd, 9:57 AM: Make sure your launcher is fully updated to 100%. The patch has been uploaded in several waves. The complete update will show the Endwalker logo in the launcher:
Update December 3rd, 9:50 AM: So far, there have been no reports on Lodestone regarding a possible extension of the maintenance work. The servers should go online in about 10 minutes.
We wish you good luck logging in and short queues!
Update December 3rd, 8:30 AM: Good morning everyone. There are approximately 1.5 hours left until the end of the maintenance work. In the meantime, the patch can be downloaded.
- PS4 patch is 7 GB
- PS5 patch is 6 GB
- PC/Mac patch is 10.5 GB
Update December 2nd, 4:30 PM: The servers went offline today at 10:00 AM in preparation for the expansion. So you have the entire evening to mentally prepare for Endwalker. We will see you tomorrow morning for the start of Early Access.
When does the Early Access of Endwalker start? The servers are expected to go online on December 3rd at 10:00 AM. Pre-order customers will have direct access to the content of the new expansion Endwalker and can start immediately as soon as they are logged in.
In this ticker, we will track the launch of FF14: Endwalker with you and continuously inform you about potential maintenance delays, the server status, and events in the community.
- You can find the official patch notes for Endwalker on Lodestone
- All job changes are available in the official job guide.
Feel free to let us know in the comments tomorrow how your status is logging in, whether you are in a queue, or whether you are already playing.
Measures Against Overcrowding
In a post on the official FFXIV site, Lodestone, the development team warns that there will be long queues at launch. In the post, they ask players to remain in the queue and wait to be logged into the server.
To prevent or at least mitigate potential server problems, a number of measures have been implemented:
- The Auto-Logout System: If a character is AFK for more than 30 minutes, they will be automatically logged out of the game. The blog post notes that this is an “enhanced” version of the system. It may also mean that characters on auto-run or interacting with NPCs (such as merchants) can be logged out.
- Instanced Areas: The new areas are divided into multiple sub-instances (e.g., Labyrinthos 1, 2, or 3). Content-wise, they are identical. If you are in a group with someone and land in different instances, you can switch instances at the teleport crystal, provided they aren’t overcrowded.
- Server switching in the character menu: With the World Travel System, you can now switch to other servers of a data center directly from the character selection. You do not have to be logged in as usual and standing at a teleport crystal in a city.
Subscription Owners Get Priority
Another warning from the dev team concerns the free trial version. Players who own a full version of FFXIV (i.e., paying customers) will be given priority in the queue.
Therefore, the players of the free trial version will only be able to log in once the queue has been processed. Since a lot of fans will try to log in on launch day to play the new Endwalker content, there will definitely be long queues.
Trial version owners can therefore expect to have difficulties logging into the game in the next few days.
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