The great world of Final Fantasy 14 has had its gates locked for nearly a complete month. As a consequence of widespread server congestion from the sheer variety of gamers making an attempt to get in, Sq. Enix halted gross sales of the bottom recreation 13 days after the newest enlargement’s early entry launch on December 3. In case you did not already personal the sport, you had been locked out.
Forty days since Endwalker touched down, it is nonetheless unimaginable to purchase a brand new copy of Last Fantasy 14 or play the free trial.
The extreme wait occasions have considerably dissipated as we have got a ways from Endwalker’s launch. Weekday queue occasions throughout peak North American hours can nonetheless be near an hour, particularly after the launch of the newest content material patch. And weekends could be worse. Outdoors of that, it will probably take me simply three to 5 minutes to get into the sport. It is nothing in comparison with the hours-long queue occasions throughout Endwalker’s launch week, and logging in is now nearly solely server error free.
However the wait time for anybody trying to strive Last Fantasy 14 for the first time has stretched to weeks. The vacation break would have been an opportune time for a lot of to create a personality and begin exploring the world of Eorzea, however FF14’s removing from on-line retailers left them flipping via postcards on social media as a substitute.
Normally when video games are taken off storefronts it is as a result of no person desires to play them. Cyberpunk 2077 was so filled with game-breaking bugs when it got here out in 2020 (and even worse efficiency issues on consoles) that Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store, and final 12 months, Rockstar needed to briefly halt sales of its Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remasters for comparable causes.
This case’s completely different. If you will get in with out an excessive amount of problem, Last Fantasy 14 works fantastic. Its worst points had been servers overloading and errors that kicked folks out of the road to get into the sport. The builders labored to repair the problems on their finish by limiting new character creation and server transfers, however they could not merely patch out the thousands and thousands of gamers making an attempt to log in.
In an official post earlier than Endwalker’s launch, producer Naoki Yoshida warned gamers in regards to the lengthy queue occasions. “There may be an ongoing international scarcity and elevated demand for semiconductors, and fairly frankly, we’re nonetheless struggling to supply the required gear,” he mentioned. “Moreover, the resurgence of COVID-19 circumstances in Japan has raised main considerations relating to our skill to journey abroad for on-site implementations.”
Yoshida apologized for the tough launch in one other submit initially of the 12 months. “We’re presently working to essentially deal with the state of affairs, reminiscent of including logical knowledge facilities and rising the variety of Worlds in all areas, and we ask in your persistence within the meantime,” he wrote.
The producer has since promised extra information on the sport going again on sale quickly in addition to extra particulars on the servers, in response to a fan translation of an interview on Radio Mog Station. Yoshida steered that it won’t be lengthy earlier than you should buy the bottom model of the sport or at the least strive the free trial once more.
Regardless of all of this, Last Fantasy 14 followers appear to be taking the state of the sport properly. Many gamers expressed frustration with the queue occasions when we asked them about their experiences, however felt that the sport and its far-reaching new storyline was value it ultimately.
It is somewhat tragic that no person new can get in on the enjoyable. As any MMO participant is aware of, it isn’t the identical if you cannot discuss your pals into becoming a member of you. The meme of pitching Last Fantasy 14’s free trial to anybody even vaguely within the recreation is not fairly the identical when you need to comply with that up with a significant caveat. Perhaps quickly the doorways will open again up and folks can lastly see why no person will keep quiet in regards to the world’s greatest MMO.
