Game news Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker: The servers are overloaded! Square Enix takes stock and promises compensation
While it won’t officially release until tomorrow, Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion is already playable by many players thanks to a short early access period. And when we say many, that’s not an understatement since the servers have been overloaded since their opening.
Crazy success and total encumbrance
A few days ago, Square Enix warned players. Because of the considerable increase in the number of players in recent months, and semiconductor shortage slowing the implementation of new servers, the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker risked testing the patience of the public. It was not lacking, and a lot of players spent a considerable amount of time in the queues worldwide.
Faced with this situation, which is particularly frustrating for those who were impatiently waiting to discover the new content, the publisher has decided to take stock. First, Square Enix reports that all servers in all regions of the world have reached capacity, creating extremely long queues. To locate, There have never been so many Final Fantasy XIV players logged in at the same time that Sunday afternoon, with more than 95,000 players in line !
Across the FFXIV service as a whole, the number of simultaneous connections reached the hard limit and, as a result, the connection required an extremely long time, especially during “peak hours” (12:00 to 00:00 French time, editor’s note) when we tend to see an increase in player activity. For that, I am very sorry, said Naoki Yoshida, producer and director of the game.
Proportionate compensation is foreseen
Recognized for being particularly attentive to the community, the game team has already undertaken to compensate affected players by connection difficulties. Indeed, Naoki Yoshida indicated that at the launch, which will take place officially on December 7, all players with a full version and an active subscription will be considered as eligible for 7 days of free play. Players currently enjoying the 30 free days after purchasing the title are also affected by this offer, which could be extended :
In addition, we may grant additional free play time according to the evolution of the congestion situation. When free play time will be provided, as well as any additional expansions, will be announced at a later date. We really appreciate your cooperation and patience regarding the congestion situation.
Small point on the technical situation
It was also to take stock of the technical aspect of this pre-launch, already a victim of its success. Yoshi P begins by reviewing the various error messages encountered by players, especially error 2022. This could be due to a queue containing more than 17,000 players, or to a drop / instability in the flow on the player side. The errors 4004, 5003 and 5006 are on their side due to a waiting time exceeding the time expected by the technicians. The teams are currently trying to see how to extend the latter.
Finally, the producer returned to automatic disconnections, thought to prevent some players from keeping their place on the server while inactive. It reminds that triggering emotes or attacking mannequins in a loop does not avoid AKF status (away from the keyboard), and therefore automatic disconnection after 30 minutes. It also presents apologies about the end credits of the various expansions, on which the logout process has not been disabled. While waiting for a solution to be found, the producer invites players to occasionally press a key or button of their controller.
