Final Fantasy XIV is so popular, Square Enix are stopping selling it
You won't even be able to sign up for the free trial
Final Fantasy XIV is suffering from success, thanks, in part, to its recently released Endwalker expansion. Despite updates to ease server errors and long queue times, players are still struggling to log into the game. So, Square Enix have only gone and done it. They've temporarily suspended sales of the game, as well as new registrations for the free trial version. Even adverts are being stopped for now.
Sales of Final Fantasy XIV Starter Edition and Complete Edition, as well as those Free Trial registrations won't be available for a little while. According to producer and director Naoki Yoshida's post, "These temporary suspensions will be phased in over the next few days as we work with our retail partners."
Right now, there's no set date for their return to stores. Yoshida says they'll "continue to monitor the situation as we consider the timing around resuming sales." Expansion packs and Collector's Edition digital upgrades will still be available for existing players, at least, so you can go ahead and upgrade your game without issue.
Players were recently awarded 7 days of free game time to compensate for all the server shenanigans. Well, Squeenix are granting an additional 14 days of free game time to further apologise. This bonus will apply to everyone who owns the full version of the game and has an active subscription as of 21st December at 12:00am PST (that's 8:00am GMT and 3:00am EST).
Yoshida also brings us an update on their plans to bolster Final Fantasy XIV's server infrastructure.
"We are considering adding servers to each region, especially plans for a large-scale addition in North America and Europe, and will be looking at the number of servers, infrastructure construction time, power issues, and server rack situation to see if we should do this sequentially or in one big push. Either way, the plan is to introduce a large number of additions, which we intend to carry out quickly and safely with as minimal inconvenience to our players as possible, and we will follow up regarding this matter as we progress."
Square Enix have previously said that their plans to expand servers were held up by the ongoing global hardware shortage.
By the end of January 2022, they also plan on releasing a server roadmap. No battle passes or cosmetics in sight – just server talk, which sounds quite nice, actually.
It's weird seeing a game actually removed from stores because it's too darn popular. I like to think Yoshi-P and his team are wiping their tears with plenty of well-deserved Yen. Well done folks, you made a game so popular you actually had to remove it from sale. That's metal.