On the weekend, there was a curious event in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. The game could no longer be purchased online from the official store, with the error message stating that it was sold out. Additionally, no new characters could be created on any of the US servers. We at MeinMMO take a look at what happened.
What is it about? The MMORPG FFXIV is currently experiencing a huge hype wave. One gets this impression when looking at the player numbers on Steam and the view counts on Twitch (via TwitchTracker). However, the fact that the digital copies of Final Fantasy 14 are sold out is not something one would necessarily expect.
But exactly that happened over the weekend. If one wanted to purchase a PC version of FFXIV from Square Enix, one was placed in a waiting line and received a friendly message stating that unfortunately there were no copies available at the moment. They were simply sold out.
How did this happen? A classic sold-out situation, as one might encounter in retail, is rather atypical with game keys. The keys are generated and usually quickly enough to serve the market. (via Steam)
On Twitter, the well-known analyst Daniel Ahmad commented on the unusual situation:
He assumes that the servers cannot be expanded quickly enough to accommodate the many new players, and therefore the only solution was to temporarily not allow new players to come in. His assumption is supported by the fact that the US servers of FFXIV had been so overcrowded in recent days that no new characters could be created.
This is the status of the servers: On reddit, players posted screenshots of the server status over the weekend. The US data centers were full, and creating new characters was impossible (via reddit). Earlier in July, FFXIV set a new player record on Steam, with around 48,000 players playing simultaneously on July 4, several thousand more than at the launch of the last major expansion, Shadowbringers. This trend seems to be continuing, and more and more new players are flocking to the MMORPG.
On Saturday, the game again broke its player record and for the first time had over 50,000 active players simultaneously. On Sunday, this record was broken again when over 58,000 players were online at the same time. That’s another 10,000 more than last week’s record and a full 17,000 more than at the launch of the last expansion (via SteamCharts)
There is currently no official statement from Square Enix regarding the sales stop. In response to an inquiry from PCGamer, they stated that they could not comment on the situation yet (via PCGamer). However, it is likely that the sale of new accounts was intentionally halted to respond to the influx of new players.
The Community Takes It With Humor
How do the players see the situation? The FFXIV community largely views the entire situation with a healthy dose of humor. Before the influx of players, it was a popular meme within the community to absurdly mention the game’s tagline often. The phrase “The critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV with an extended free trial up to level 60” was frequently mentioned on reddit and social media.
Now, players are laughing about the fact that it seems to have worked. User sparrows415 humorously writes (via Twitter):
Okay we have changed our minds. Please do NOT try the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV with an extended free trial up to level 60. There are too many of you.
Others are giving new players tips on character creation or are simply happy about fresh blood in the MMORPG:
- User paintstream writes (via reddit): “A little tip for new players: Save your customized character during character creation. It makes it much easier to catch the login window at three in the morning!”
- The same thread is joined by user deathbotly: “I just almost had a wipe in Sycrus. The old areas currently feel like Crazytown.”
In general, it can be said that the community in the game is pleased with the influx of new players. Older areas are being revitalized, and experienced players are happy to help newcomers. User HondaS2000AP1 writes on reddit that he has found a task in giving all newcomers 999 eggs. These provide a 3% experience bonus.
What about you? Can you understand the hype and are you fully on board, or do you view the situation more skeptically? What do you think of the decision to temporarily lock out new players? Feel free to let us know in the comments!
And if you are already fully involved, there are three reasons why you should definitely try the new Endwalker benchmark.
