Final Fantasy 14 players have had a rough time logging in since the early access launch of the MMORPG’s Endwalker expansion. As server congestion issues continue to persist, publisher and developer Square Enix has temporarily suspended sales of the game’s starter and complete editions as well as registrations for the game’s generous free trial.
The decision to temporarily suspend sales of FFXIV’s starter and complete editions does not extend to expansion packs and digital Collector’s Edition upgrades. Existing players who are still working their way through the title’s past content can still purchase new expansions, as long as they’re lucky enough to actually get in.
“These temporary suspensions will be phased in over the next few days as we work with our retail partners. We will be coordinating with them as swiftly as possible, but please bear in mind that this will be a gradual process,” Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida wrote in a post on the Lodestone.
The publisher will also give all players who own FFXIV’s full version and have an active subscription as of Tuesday, December 21, an additional 14 days of free game time after previously granting players 7 free days of game time as compensation for the login issues.
Final Fantasy 14’s queues can see players waiting for several hours before getting to play, especially around peak hours. A fix for a bug related to Error 2002, which resulted in players getting disconnected while waiting in the queue, will be deployed on December 21 alongside patch 6.1.
Square Enix warned of potential congestion well ahead of Endwalker’s launch, as the MMORPG’s popularity skyrocketed, reiterating on several occasions that the global semiconductor shortage continues to make adding new servers difficult.
Progress is being made and current plans involve releasing “some sort of roadmap by the end of January 2022,” detailing the approach to make more space for players.
“We are considering adding servers to each region, especially plans for a large-scale addition in North America and Europe, and will be looking at the number of servers, infrastructure construction time, power issues, and server rack situation to see if we should do this sequentially or in one big push.”
Those who do manage to make it in can get a handful of new rewards from FFXIV’s Starlight Celebration Event 2021 which lasts until the end of the month.
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