For a few weeks now, the servers of Final Fantasy XIV have been overrun by new players. This has led to long queues and login issues. The head of the MMORPG has now apologized for this.
The situation at a glance:
- For a few weeks now, the MMORPG FFXIV has been experiencing a strong influx of new players and continues to set new player records on Steam.
- One of the main reasons for this is the entry of several large streamers like Asmongold into the game, who have generated a lot of attention for FFXIV.
- However, the game’s success also brought problems. These include error messages, overloaded servers, and long queues of up to 40 minutes. New players, on the other hand, could not create characters because servers were closed due to high load.
In a letter to players, the director of Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki Yoshida, now speaks out.
“The increase in NA and EU regions was breathtaking and unexpected”
This is what the director says: In his letter, Yoshida first apologized for the unpleasant situation. He explained that the influx of new players was “breathtaking and unexpected” for the developers, which is why they could not respond quickly enough.
Further in the text, he explained how the servers in FFXIV work. Currently, all servers of a data center have a maximum number of players that can be online at the same time. Once this number is reached, a login queue forms, and new players are only let in when others have logged out.
The maximum number of players per server varies by data center and is currently, for example, at 18,000 players in the US region. According to Yoshida, it is not possible to simply increase this number and remove the upper limit because this would lead to matchmaking problems in instanced content such as dungeons or raids.
The matching servers will not be able to handle the load of the players, as they are tuned to the set limits of their respective data centers. Therefore, this upper limit must remain in place for now until the matching servers have been upgraded.
This is what has been done about the problems: With the latest patch 5.58, an auto-logout has been introduced in FFXIV. All players who are AFK for more than 30 minutes will be logged out of the game to make room for others. Yoshida also asked in his letter that players log out of FFXIV themselves if they are inactive for a long time.
There was also a change in login queues. Players who own the free trial version of FFXIV and do not have an active subscription can no longer join a queue. They must wait until the queue is completely dissolved. Paying players have priority at this point.
Yoshida and his team are also working on acquiring additional servers for players. However, there have been problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to resource shortages, there are still delays in the delivery of components necessary for new servers. Yoshida noted that he had even tried to pay more money for faster delivery, but that did not work either.
Currently, it is not possible for the server team to visit the servers on-site due to ongoing travel restrictions worldwide. Yoshida and his team apologized again for the inconveniences.
“Yoshida suffers from success”
This is how players are reacting: The director’s letter has received a lot of attention on reddit and social media. The reddit thread has over 6,000 upvotes and almost 1,000 comments, many of which are positive. There were also many positive reactions on Twitter. The tweet from the official FFXIV account received over 10,000 likes and 3,000 retweets. A large number of users praise the development team for their transparency.
This paragraph legit brought tears to my eyes. Someone please tell Yoshi-P we are happy for him and not upset with him!! pic.twitter.com/YApoxNBqcy
— proud basic catgirl 5.55 (@ravydoeseorzea) July 20, 2021
However, especially the last part of the letter moved some players. Yoshida wrote that the “constant flow of positive energy” from the players gives the development team more strength to continue working on the expansion Endwalker. He also apologized again for not being able to foresee the circumstances and that the players now have to suffer as a result. A Twitter user mentioned that she even got teary-eyed at the last paragraph.
But it did not lack memes and humor. Some players joked that Yoshida is suffering greatly from his own success and shared edited images of the director looking sad while wearing furs and gold jewelry.
— Chancu (@Chancuh) July 20, 2021
Generally, however, a large part of the comments show understanding of the situation, even if some are still frustrated about the long wait times.
Are you also among the players who recently started with FFXIV? Or are you veterans who have been around for many years? What do you think of the situation and Yoshida’s letter? Let us know in the comments.
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