Players can finally purchase Final Fantasy XIV again. Square Enix has set up a new data center for the popular game to help stabilize its crowded servers.
It’s no secret to anyone familiar with Square Enix’s massive multiplayer online RPG that it’s one of the most popular video games out there right now. But that popularity backfired, as Square Enix had to stop selling the title after a massive influx of new players triggered by its latest Endwalker expansion caused server troubles. Now, after six weeks and a server fix, players can purchase the game once more.
According to Naoki Yoshida, producer and director of FF14, the new player bump caused “extremely long wait times due to the dense concentration of play hours which far exceed our server capacity, especially during the peak times.” This led Yoshida and the team to start planning to expand the global server capacity.
Today saw the announcement of the first step of that plan with patch 6.08. This patch introduces new changes to the battle system and character classes, plus an all-new data center named Oceanian.
The new server launches on January 26, 2022, allowing for new character creation, as well as Home World Transfers, which grant players access to switch data centers.
The update also introduces “New Worlds,” which are worlds where players can transfer to and attain special bonuses. which include double experience points and currencies for in-game rewards.
While players can purchase the game once more, new free trial registrations are still prohibited. No new trial registration time has been mentioned as of yet.