Shadowbringers, the new expansion of Final Fantasy XIV, went on pre-order yesterday. The MMORPG from Square Enix landed overnight in the top 5 of the Steam sales charts, and the official Square Enix store crashed due to the influx of fans.
What happened? The hype for the latest addon Shadowbringers of FFXIV is huge. Just yesterday, on February 6, it went on pre-order and seems to be doing really well so far.
Especially on Steam, the pre-orders for Shadowbringers are running smoothly. It quickly landed in the top 5 in the charts, and in the European Square Enix store, the physical Collector’s Edition for Steam was completely sold out within minutes after the start of the pre-order.
The Collector’s Edition for PC soon followed, and by now the PS4 version is also gone (as of February 7, 5:07 PM). Fans will have to wait on waitlists for now and hope they still have a chance to get the goodies.
High influx also in the official Square Enix Store: The American Square Enix Store couldn’t withstand the influx of fans at the start of the pre-orders and completely crashed. One player posted a screenshot of the error message on Reddit with the words: “We probably already killed it”.
Many fans in the Reddit thread took the crash with humor. Jokes were made about the “Pre-order Extreme” mode and that people should please form a line, referencing the rocky launch of the Stormblood addon. Meanwhile, the store is back online.
Long-awaited content and good timing for pre-orders
The content of the addon creates hype: With the expansion Shadowbringers, Final Fantasy XIV skillfully plays to its strengths. Square Enix has designed the story of the addon in the trailer very mysteriously, and players have been speculating for months about where and when exactly they should play.
Known NPCs appear in the trailer but are sometimes addressed by wrong names, and the signs are generally very ominous. There is tension in the community about what exactly will happen in the story in the near future.
Furthermore, the developer team addresses many wishes of the fans with the addon that have been expressed for a long time. For example, there will be a crossover with the popular Square Enix game NieR: Automata. This will not just be a small event, but a whole 24-man raid with three parts.
The new job Gunbreaker and the race of Viera have also been requested many times and are now finally coming with the addon to Final Fantasy XIV.
The timing of the pre-order was important: In choosing the timing for the start of the pre-orders, Square Enix was also smart. It has only been less than a week since the end of the fan festival in Europe, so the hype over the new announcements is still very fresh.
All information about the pre-orders, early access, and the different editions of Shadowbringers can be found here:
Here you will find all important information about Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers
