Just how much more popular Final Fantasy 14 Online will get?
After releasing the Endwalker expansion back in December, Square Enix’s hit MMO experienced a massive surge in players. It eventually got to the point that Square pulled the plug on all digital sales of the game until it could roll out additional data centers. Fast forward to January 25, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen. According to Final Fantasy producer Naoki Yoshida, sales of Final Fantasy XIV will return on January 25, the same date the game’s new data centers will go online. Yoshida explains that the new Oceanian data servers will cater to players logging in from nearby territories in Australia and New Zealand. In total, Square Enix will add five new instances that regional players can transfer to for free for a better play experience. In addition to the new data centers, Yoshida added that the studio will reconfigure the Japanese data centers in July. Meanwhile, players can expect Square Enix to expand the data centers in Europe and North America in July and August, respectively. All of these should help address Final Fantasy 14’s ongoing server congestion issues. Final Fantasy 14 Online’s resurgence last year was a sign of an overall uptrend for MMOs. It will be interesting to see if this will continue going forward. If it does, then here’s to hoping Square Enix’s server upgrades will happen before then. Otherwise, Square Enix might have no choice but to suspend sales of the game for the nth time.
