Game Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida has apologized for the long FFXIV login queues, explaining that the uptick in the game's popularity is stretching the MMORPG's server hardware to the limit.
Final Fantasy 14 is ramping up for the launch of its new Endwalker expansion. Players are surely excited to check out the new hunts and unlock the new Reaper and Sage jobs, but there's a small problem -- they're having a hard time actually logging in to the game.
Why Are the FFXIV Login Queues So Long?
The FFXIV login queues are so long for two key reasons: the game has exploded in popularity in recent weeks and the server hardware isn't quite up to snuff.
As we reported last week, FFXIV has reached 25 million players total. The active playercount is pretty high, too; SteamCharts shows that the game reached an all-time peak of 95,102 players within the last 24 hours. Unfortunately, this is stretching the game's backend to the breaking point -- and that has resulted in its Director apologizing and explaining the situation.
"The congestion that has continued since the start of Endwalker Early Access has been the cause of many inconveniences to our players," read a portion of the statement from FFXIV Producer & Director Naoki Yoshida (via Reddit). "Regarding this, we truly appreciate your understanding and cooperation thus far."
"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."
The problems with the FFXIV login queues weren't the only issue with the game's growing population in recent memory; a player housing crisis made it difficult for new people to actually get a home due to a pause on demolishing old houses. While this pause was lifted late last year, it came after the developers announced an expansion to the number of available houses.
Aside from the apology, Yoshida-san has a nice surprise for active subscribers -- everyone is getting 7 days of game time for free to compensate them for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, there were no specific announcements as to what will be done to actually fix the problem behind the scenes; presumably, this is going to require software changes and/or additional server hardware. You can get started playing FFXIV for PC, Mac, and PlayStation via its official website starting with a free trial -- assuming you can actually get into the game, that is.
How long have you had to wait in the FFXIV login queues? Do you think Square Enix is doing enough to reduce the wait times? Let us know in the comments below!
