A divisive issue shared across pretty much all servers in Final Fantasy XIV is the lack of player housing to meet increasing demand. Released during A Realm Reborn primarily as an endgame system for players to pool their Gil into, the system has continually been expanded with new housing areas, new building designs and a wealth of furniture to decorate your interiors and exteriors. An issue from the very start – matters such as players buying up vast swaths of land before limits were put in place and real-world events leading to the auto-demolition timer being stalled only compounded the problem.
With Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal now live, the game’s producer & director Naoki “YoshiP” Yoshida has addressed the ongoing issue in an announcement in an article on the game’s official website. And tl;dr – this is an issue they are looking into but may not have a solution until the next major patch.
Below is the full statement provided by Naoki Yoshida, outlining the reasons why a solution may take longer than usual:
Housing Shortages and a Rising Player Population
Statement by Naoki Yoshida
Now that Patch 5.3 is finally here, and the game’s free trial has been expanded, there has been a marked increase in the number of people playing, for which we are extremely grateful.
That said, automatic housing demolition has been suspended due to the spread of COVID-19 (also known as “novel coronavirus”) and the economic effects of various cities going into lock-down, which has caused housing to become increasingly scarce as the player population continues to climb.
To all of our players, especially those who have newly begun their adventures in FFXIV, I apologize for the present lack of housing.
Improving Data Centers to Allow for Additional Plots
To support the addition of housing plots, all data centers will require additional servers.
We are making preparations to account for the cost of these additional servers, but due to restrictions on shipments from Japan to other countries due to COVID-19, as well as the potential necessity of quarantine upon entry and re-entry to different countries, work to ready the servers is slow-going.
Provisional Measures
In light of difficulties in improving the data centers, the development team is doing what it can to further optimize the servers to allow for the addition of as many housing plots as we can by the release of Patch 5.4.
We will make a follow-up announcement when we’ve finalized the time table for these additions, and have determined how many can be added.
