Final Fantasy XIV is struggling against overcrowded servers and long login queues. As a result, the sale of the MMORPG had to be halted. Now, director Yoshida has presented a roadmap for expanding the servers.
The situation in brief:
- Since summer 2021, FFXIV has seen a high influx of new players, resulting in full servers and login queues. The MMORPG broke several of its player records on Steam and was briefly in the top 10 most played games.
- The situation drastically worsened with the release of the new expansion Endwalker on December 3, 2021. The servers were overwhelmed by players, and hour-long queues formed. For fans who could only log in during the evening due to work, it was nearly impossible to get into the game.
- In response, the FFXIV team gifted players 3 weeks of free playtime as compensation and halted all sales of the MMORPG. The free trial version could no longer be played either.
- Director of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida, explained that due to the global semiconductor shortage, it is difficult for the team to acquire new servers, and travel restrictions between countries complicate the installation. He promised an update on the status in January.
Now there is new information on the roadmap for server upgrades of FFXIV and the sale of the MMORPG in a director’s blog post.
New servers starting January 25, but…
What’s coming on January 25: In a typically detailed update, the head of the MMORPG outlines the developers’ plans for the expansion of the data centers. According to this, the new data center for the oceanic region will go live on January 25.
It was originally planned to start with 3 new servers, but this number has increased to 5 due to the high number of players. Players residing in the region can switch servers and thereby reduce their server latency. The switch will be available again from January 26 and is free for all at the Oceanian data center. It is also associated with certain rewards.
Alongside the Oceanian data center, sales of the digital version of FFXIV will also be resumed. Reasons for this are the new servers and the login frequency of existing players, which, according to Yoshida, has normalized again.
However, if there are further overloads, sales will be halted again. The free trial version will also remain disabled.
Current status of EU servers: Compared to Oceania, players in the remaining regions still have quite a wait ahead until their servers are expanded, including Europe. The first step in expanding the European servers will not occur until July 2022.
In the first stage of expansion around July 2022, we will add two new worlds to each of the two logical data centers [in Europe], for a total of four new worlds. In the second stage, we plan to establish a new third logical data center and open eight new worlds there. This will lead to a configuration of three logical data centers with 8:8:8 worlds. The expansion in two stages is unfortunately necessary due to the current semiconductor shortages.
The establishment of the third center will not happen until summer 2023. Additionally, a fourth data center for Europe is already in planning. Similar measures are also being taken for the USA and Japan.
The team is planning the server expansion far in advance and already considering the next expansion 7.0, which does not yet have an official name but is already in development. This is to prevent a situation similar to the launch of Endwalker.
Will this help? Although the expansion on January 25 does not involve servers for all regions that many players hoped and waited for, the Oceanian data center should still provide some relief.
Players from Australia, New Zealand, and other countries in the region, who were previously scattered across JP, EU, and US data centers, will now switch servers and settle in their new home.
However, the new servers are not exclusively interesting for players from the Oceanic region. It is quite possible that the transfer could also be attractive for players from other regions. On one hand, it is free and associated with bonuses.
On the other hand, new servers offer a fresh economy, which one can directly enter as a crafter or gatherer. And most importantly, there are many available plots in the housing areas on new servers.
Housing in FFXIV is an extremely rare and valuable asset. On gold seller sites, they are sometimes sold for more money than PS5 consoles. Many players can only dream of having their own house, so the prospect of being able to buy a plot without major issues on a new data center is enticing for many.
What do you think about the FFXIV roadmap? Do you think the Oceanian data center will make a noticeable difference, or is it just a drop in the ocean? Will you switch servers when the new data center in Europe goes live in summer? Let us know in the comments.
Play Final Fantasy XIV if you want to do something good for yourself
