Final Fantasy XIV Devs Apologize for Endwalker Launch Issues, Will Provide 7 Days of Free Game Time

Dec 6, 2021 at 04:24am EST
Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV players threw themselves in the early access of Endwalker, the latest expansion to hit the acclaimed MMORPG, over this weekend. However, that experience was highly frustrating due to a series of issues, mainly long queues to actually get into the game.

The game's developers have now spoken about the problems through none other than Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida. In an open letter to fans, he apologized for all these issues and revealed that Square Enix has agreed to provide seven days of free game time as a form of compensation.

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■ Regarding the congestion situation

Currently, all Worlds across all regions have been hitting the login cap for extremely long periods of time, and the progression of login queues is being slowed dramatically. Across the FFXIV service as a whole, the number of simultaneous logins has reached the hardware limit, and as a result, logging in has required an extremely long time, especially during “peak hours” when we tend to see increased player activity. For this, I am truly sorry.

■ Regarding game time compensation due to congestion

Considering that we are asking players to wait in queues for extremely long periods of time and the ongoing situation making it difficult to play normally, we have decided that during the official release of Endwalker on December 7, we will be granting 7 days of free game time to all players who own the full version of the game and have an active subscription. This also includes players who are currently playing on the 30-day free play period included when registering the full version of the game and those with multiple accounts.

Furthermore, we may give additional free game time depending on further developments on the congestion situation. The timing at which the free game time will be provided, as well as any additional extensions, will be announced at a later time. We truly appreciate your cooperation and patience regarding the congestion situation.

Our Kai tried Endwalker ahead of launch; you can check out his hands-on preview over here.

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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