FFXIV to temporarily suspend sales due to congestion

You read that correctly, Final Fantasy XIV is so popular right now that they're going to suspend sales for a while in hopes of easing pressure on the game's servers.

If you haven't been keeping up with the world of MMOs, FFXIV recently released a new expansion called Endwalker. Like with a lot of their more recent additions, Endwalker saw a spike in players both returning to FFXIV and newcomers checking it out. As expected, demand was pretty high. However, this time those usual long digital lines to get in never seemed to let up.

And, as you can see, Square has decided to suspend sales until the pressure eases. This includes any new registrants for free trials, though if you had a free trial you'll be able to play during restricted, non-peak hours. They will also cease all new advertisements which is just kind of bonkers. They will also be adding 14 extra days to players with an active subscription. You can get more details on their website.

I thought Cyberpunk having sales suspended on PS4 for being broken was pretty odd, but this may take the cake. FFXIV is just so popular no one new can be allowed in. Somehow the world of Hydaelyn just became the most exclusive game.

I've only been able to successfully log in literally one time in the two weeks since the expansion launched (when I happened to wake up before 10am on a Saturday), so I guess I'm glad they're at least doing something, though I'm not sure how much not allowing new players to buy the game is going to help lower the 2-4k person queues that I'm seeing whenever I try to log in after work.

It's a pretty wild confluence of events with the rise of the game on Twitch, the new expansion and the global chip shortage all coming together to make one big mess.

Playing on a Japanese Data Center though, I wouldn't ever know these problems exist without reading the news stories though. Endwalker has definitely shot itself onto the top of my Game of the Year list.

Final Fantasy XIV is officially the only game to be taken off the market for being too bad (when they pulled it down to retool it for A Realm Reborn) and ALSO for being too good (Endwalker.)

That's a distinction no other game is going to achieve for a very long time.

I started a free trial months ago, and managed to get almost all the way through the ARR story quest and just stopped because I didn't really have time for it. I bought physical copies of ARR and the 2nd xpac for when I was ready to upgrade to a full account, which I THOUGHT about doing soon so I wonder if I'd be restricted from redeeming those serials? What a weird problem to have in this day and age, but I guess it's a "good" problem (aside from your existing customers not being able to play lmao)?

I don’t know if this is the right call but it’s a pretty incredible one. I can’t say I’ve played a lot of games that suffered in success in quite this way.

This is some delicious irony. Thank you for pointing this out.

I still don't get how people can play a game that requires a fee every month. As a Final Fantasy fan I would love to play it and see what all the fuss is about, but I believe in once a person buys a game that's it. They paid for it, unless they choose to get DLC and other stuff. I know I could play the trial, but you barely do anything in those.

@av_gamer: As someone who was similarly resistant to subscription-MMOs for much of my life, I'd say the cost gets borne out in the updates that continue even between expansions, the amount of new content can be significant. It's not like you need to stay permanently subscribed either, just go in and out as you like.

Beyond that though, it's worth noting that the free trial for FFXIV is actually very extensive. It's an unlimited time trial all the way til the end of the first expansion, which is a very good expansion. I'm veering perilously close to the meme but if you have the time you really ought to check out what is easily some of the best storytelling in the franchise.

@bigsocrates said:

Holy shit, you're right. Fucking wild.

@av_gamer: If you’re okay with dlc I’m not sure i understand the reticence. The game updates regularly with similar content to any comparable dlc release.

If you were an absolutist about it then fine but one and not the other I can’t quite get.

It's simple. DLC is something a person chooses to add to the base game they paid for. They don't have to get it if they don't want it. For example, Marvel's Spiderman had story DLC added in episodes, which ultimately was about stopping Hammerhead. If a person doesn't care for it, they don't have to purchase it. I personally got the DLC when it was on sale and enjoyed it, but I wasn't forced to. However, games like WOW and FFXIV, you must pay a monthly fee to keep playing it and get all the updates and added story content. Worse yet, there major story updates are sold as separate major arc updates and you still have to pay that monthly fee. No thanks. This week Warframe is going to drop its next major story based update in years and its all free-to-play. I'll stick with that and enjoy it, as it is way overdue.

@av_gamer: It's one thing to say "it's not for me, I don't like it" and another to say "I don't get why someone would want to pay a subscription fee."

Because it's worth it to them?

If you play 50 hours of FF XIV per month then it's great value. Certainly cheaper per hour than paying for 5 separate 10 hour games. And there's an absolute ton of content in it, constant updates, a complex guild system etc...

What's so hard to understand? It's a model that has been around for like 25 years. You pay a monthly fee for the servers and the constant development, and in return you get a game that you can sink literally thousands of hours into. When they drop huge expansions that are the size of multiple full games (not just little 6 hour things like the Spider-Man DLC) they charge full game price for it.

You don't have to want to consume games like that, I am not signed up for any MMOs right now, but it's not a difficult concept to see why it appeals to some people, for whom it can be their whole gaming life. $15 a month for all your gaming needs is a bargain!

@av_gamer: It just seems like such a strange line to draw in the sand to me. Knowing what I’m paying for it just seems as normal as any other service I pay for.

@bigsocrates said:

Fair enough. I might give the free trial a go and get a taste of what makes this game so popular. Hopefully, it will be enough of a experience to make that judgement.

I think at this moment it is the best thing that they can do. I highly doubt that they have a cloud setup, otherwise they could've thrown money at this issue quicker than waiting on more hardware to set up in all their server clusters.

Long term, I think they should look into migrating to the cloud. As someone that works in tech, a project like this scares the hell out of me and would take a lot of time to make sure it is done right. Considering that this is now a 10+ year legacy product at this point.

The jump is both a huge technical project and may require a whole new set of skills for those maintaining things. I've personally seen both sides working SaaS and company maintained servers. The pivot is hard.

The way I like to think of the difference between a regular retail or digital game and a subscription-based MMORPG is that it is analogous between a toy and a theme park. Or between a Blu-Ray and a movie theater ticket. One is a finished product you have a lot of control over, while the other is a scheduled service that is time-sensitive.

Anyway, what a ride FF14 has had this year. I reupped my subscription for a little bit this year and finally managed to finish A Realm Reborn and get some quests in to Heavensward. Maybe I'll get back in next year once the congestion woes subside a bit.

It's a well-made MMO but it's still an MMO. After 20 hours of fetch quests and the occasional dungeon I was done with it.

Is this the first game company with the integrity to say...no dont give us all the money our vault is full we want you to have a good experience so wait. They could beg Microsoft to host it on gamepass cloud and make bank im betting charging microsoft a premium and microsoft would foot the bill to make billions. I dont know. Everytime i think i figured out businesses which people equate to...all they care about is money at all cost...you get some that say...eh...we cant afford to buy servers well wait it out and see how things go...NOT WTF DO YOU MEAN FIRE EVERY LOWER PERSON STAKE HOLDERS WANT BLOOD NOW GET ME IN CONTACT WITH Heck so we can pipeline some servers for half the cost of a soul.

Aha, love it. Pretty sure they did this before too. For Stormbringer iirc.

@theht: I'm pretty sure they never suspended sales/ads for that release, although I'm sure they comped a lot of free sub time because Stormblood was a notoriously bad launch for them.

@efesell: Hm, I must be misremembering, then. I could've sworn I saw something like this go down before, complete with the "it's too successful" sentiment.

@theonewhoplays: As someone in the middle of the latest expansion, these last two expansions quests are mostly cut scenes and talking. Very little fetch, and it's better for it.

To me, no, it's not just an MMO, because I've never seen or played one with a story that mattered; that plays out like a long time television show because they don't have to shove in every idea they have in a few year development time and 10-40 hour run time.

Yes, someone like Jeff would be WELL IF YOU GOTTA PLAY 80 HOURS FOR IT TO GET GOOD, WHY EVEN BOTHER? But sometimes, that's just the way of it. Nothing is for everyone but XIV has basically killed off me ever wanting to play something similar to this style of MMO again because I will never care for any others remotely as much as this one.

I’ve been playing through the whole early access period to now, trying to catch up in the MSQ To play Endwalker. The queues are nuts but I always manage to get in eventually. The game is so good so far y’all. One of the best RPG’s I’ve played in a long time. And since I’m playing old content I haven’t even had to grind for levels. It’s all sweet sweet content only.

@theht: You're not misremembering. There was a period earlier in the year where they ran out of online codes, and had to temporarily suspend digital purchase of the game while more codes were generated.

Overall, whether it be the suspension of additional sales and account registrations, pushing free trial players to the back of the queue during peak hours, the natural dying down of the initial release rush, or a combination of all three, it is much easier to get into the game now. You won't see triple digit queues until 4pm EST, and usually won't be waiting for more than half an hour.

I wonder when they'll open things back up again. Maybe after the launch of the first Savage difficulty raids and the conclusion of the world first race to complete it, this week.

@turambar: I was also mistaken in that A Realm Reborn proper also halted sales for this reason. Perhaps not expecting that so many people would be interested in the revival of a game that did so poorly. Or Papa Square Enix not allowing them to prepare for it. Either way while this is still a pretty fascinating thing to have happen it IS something of a running theme it turns out.

But yeah I would expect things to open up again very soon. I haven't seen a queue higher than ~800 in a week even at around prime hours. Savage raids will revive some people but probably not enough to worry about opening up the gates again.