Square Enix have announced the release date for the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker expansion has been delayed to December 7th.
The game was originally set to launch November 23rd, but the delay was announced during the producer letter and as its own announcement. Producer & Director Naoki Yoshida blames himself entirely for the delay due to his own “selfishness;” that being on top of the expansion already being the largest and development getting down to the wire, he could not resist making the expansion better.
This was due to the expansion being the end of a major story arc- Hydaelyn Vs. Zodiark. “Even as we look beyond Endwalker, the FFXIV story will continue for a long time and we hope to deliver many more enjoyable experiences in the game,” Yoshida explains. “However, it was precisely because Endwalker concludes the first major saga that I felt our team needed to push ourselves to the ‘limits’ that I envisioned.”
Thus resulted in adjustments to “the smallest nuances and ensure our writing covers even the finest points of the vast and intricate story that has spanned these past 11 years.” In turn, time that would have been used for the final quality assurance was cut into, and hitting the release date without ensuring the proper stability- made worse by expecting congestion across all game Worlds (servers).
As such, the game’s release schedule now looks like this:
Official Release: Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Start of Early Access: Friday, December 3, 2021Patch 6.01 Scheduled Release: Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Patch 6.05 Scheduled Release: Tuesday, January 4, 2022
In case you missed it, we covered all the changes coming with patch 6.0 when Endwalker launches.
Yoshida concluded by once again apologizing to players expecting the release (some who had planned to take time off work); and for making his first postponement on a previously announced release date in his career (“although I did once shift a release from Spring to early Summer…”) He was even on the edge of tears during the live producer letter.
“While we will require a little longer until the expansion pack’s release, please rest assured that we will continue investing every ounce of our strength into development and operations in order to deliver an immersive adventure to our players.
Once more I would like to convey my sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused to our players and colleagues due to my own shortcomings. I sincerely apologize for this decision.
We will continue to do our utmost to bring you the best experience not only in Endwalker but also through further updates and content that will follow, restoring your trust one step at a time.”
Finally, you can find the game’s launch trailer below.
Final Fantasy XIV is available for Windows PC, Mac (via the SE Store, and Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and still planned for Xbox One. In case you missed it, you can find our Shadowbringers expansion review here (we can’t recommend it enough!)