Yesterday evening, Producer and Director of Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida took to the game’s official Lodestone website with news on the MMORPG’s expansion plans in the coming month. This news covered changes to the existing data centers in North America, Europe and Japan – the introduction of the new Oceanic ‘Materia’ Data Center, and plans of the long-awaited Data Center Travel System. Also highlighted was the recommencement of the homeworld transfer service and further mitigation plans for congestion brought by both the game’s Endwalker expansion pack and surge in popularity in the last six months.
There are some apparent Winners from the announced plans. Still, I would also argue many scenarios where some will feel negatively impacted by the changes – if not just off-put by features being less impressive than they first seem. Therefore I would like to deconstruct the announcement and provide some thoughts and analysis on them below – at least those where I feel like I can comment.
Want to read the announcements verbatim? Visit the official Final Fantasy Website.
Opening of Oceanian Data Center
The Oceanian Data Center, which we’ve been planning for some time, will be opening approximately two weeks earlier than scheduled. This may be a little sudden, but we’ll be bringing it online on Tuesday, January 25, 2022 (JST).
Additionally, taking into account the current number of players in Oceania, the original plan was to initially add three Worlds and later introduce two more. In light of the recent influx of players, however, we’ve decided to add five new Worlds from the start. With this, there should be more than enough room for everyone in Oceania to transfer over. Those in Oceania who have struggled with network latency issues should also have a better play experience.
This will be explained in detail separately, but these being new Worlds, we’ll be offering incentives to transfer to them, such as waiving the transfer fee. We hope you take advantage of these bonuses.
As a gamer from Australia, it is exciting to hear that our region will receive a data center of our own, rather than being split over the Japanese, North American, and European data centers. The Materia Data Center will feature five worlds – Bismarck, Ravana, Sephirot, Sophia and Zurvan. Based on a poll in an active ANZ Community Facebook Page, Sophia is shaping up to be the most popular option of the five.
But while the community has been very active in requesting a local data center, my question about just how active these servers will be still stands. Because this update comes in almost a decade after the game launched, many would have formed close bonds with many on their international world, and may not be willing to say goodbye to their long-time friends and raid parties and move to another region. I could be wrong on this assumption, but as a long-time player on the Kujata data center, I am staying on the server with all my English-speaking friends, and I know many other Free Companies that are doing just the same (and even advertising themselves as such). With so much post-game content tied to randomly formed parties through the roulettes, will everyone see the local server worth the potential short/mid-term inconvenience of waiting longer for parties?
Fortunately for those who are changing across, the usual transfer incentives are available – and for those looking to acquire a coveted home, it may be a perfect opportunity. But for someone who scored their large property for an astonishing 20 mil gil compared to the 40 mil gil plus… yeah, I am never going to go through that grind again. Also keep in mind that the sale of both house plots and apartments will not be possible until Patch 6.1, meaning everyone on the data center will be homeless while others settle in.
Potential Winners or Potential Losers: Those in the Oceanic Region (Australia, New Zealand, SEA) who wish to play with those in their time zones/regions without relying on the auto-translate feature. TBD.
Now you may say… “Sam, the data center visitation system is coming in soon, and jumping between Materia and other Data Centers should be a thing”. Sadly, not at this stage according to the second announcement.
Data Center Visitation Coming in v6.1
In response to congestion following Endwalker’s release, we had postponed the launch of the Data Center Travel System. It is now being planned for a 6.1x patch. To briefly explain how the system works:
- Players will be able to visit Worlds in other logical data centers within the same physical data center.
- Players will not be able to visit Worlds in other regions/physical data centers.
- Though cross-region travel is technically possible, implementation is still under consideration.
- Travel is initiated not while logged into the game, but from the character selection screen.
As I previously mentioned in a Live Letter, while the system has been designed to allow cross-region travel, we’ll be limiting it to travel between logical data centers within a physical data center at first due in part to differences in game economy and values. We’ll be paying keen attention to the opinions of players as we consider whether or not to introduce cross-region travel in the future.
Compared to the World Visit System we already have in place, the Data Center Travel System will be subject to more restrictions for those functions that are managed per logical data center, such as free company chat and cross-world linkshells. This is due to the fact that it isn’t possible to keep an eye on chat and cross-world servers outside the bounds of a logical data center.
Aside from that, however, there are just about no restrictions. Be it undertaking quests, forming parties, or using the Duty Finder, you’ll be able to play the game as usual (If you have a means to communicate with others, such as the Lodestone or the Companion app, it should be possible to form static parties).
If you want to join a free company or linkshell in another data center, you’ll need to transfer your Home World, but we think that the system will otherwise provide an enjoyable experience. We ask for your patience just a little longer.
Honestly, with one huge caveat, I think their plans for the Data Center Travel System is both exciting and very feature-rich. Limitations such as no access to Free Company or Cross-World Link Shell systems were to be expected, but having access to pretty much every other in-game system is promising. If you and all your friends remain on the same physical data center (region), then you should consider yourself a “Winner”. Yet, suppose you have friends split across multiple regions, or perhaps, going to the soon-to-be-released Materia data center. In that case, you will sadly be locked out for a reason that I feel the development team could have avoided.
Players will not be able to visit Worlds in other regions/physical data centers.
To me, the big perk of the Data Center Travel System was being able to visit my friends playing on the Oceanic, North American and European data centers, as maintaining multiple alt characters is not practical for my limited time.
The reason given is “in part to differences in game economy and values“. I believe this could very well happen, as someone who has previously used character transfers to make tens of millions of gil when the Lich Server had their ‘Plundered Treasure’ boom. Yet, this can easily be done with two computers, two alt accounts and a little bit of IRL money for paid transfers.
Similar to how Retainers do not function properly when travelling, perhaps they could make marketboards and trading off-limits to travelling characters at this point. These restrictions are already in the game’s Trial Accounts, so such limitations are not unheard of. This is especially since they claim that “cross-region travel is technically possible”.
Final Fantasy XIV has the chance of being one of the few games where players can enjoy playing with their friends in any part of the globe with minor inconvenience. This would be, in my opinion, a substantial marketable feature of the game which can only compare with the likes of EVE Online, where friendships are not locked by region and the Warrior of Light community can come together as one.
Winners: Players with friends in the same region but different data centers to them
Losers: Players who may wish to play with their friends from around the world. Players who are losing their friends to the Materia data center.
Expansion of Japanese, North American and European Data Centers
Japanese Data Centers
- Changing number of logical data centers from three to four
- No change in the number of worlds: 32
- Data Center configuration changed from 10:11:11 to 8:8:8:8
- Capacity of simultaneous logins encompassing all worlds increased by 50,000 players or more
- Scheduled to be implemented around July 2022
North American Data Centers
- Two phase expansion, first scheduled to commence in August 2022, second in Spring/Summer 2023
- First Phase:
- One new logical data center with four new worlds
- Second Phase:
- Four new worlds added to the aforementioned new logical data center
- Wider-sweeping works in consideration for the next expansion
European Data Centers
- Two phase expansion, first scheduled to commence in July 2022, second in Summer 2023
- First Phase:
- Four new worlds will be introduced, two under each pre-existing logical data center
- Second Phase:
- New logical data center with eight new worlds underneath it
- Square Enix is looking at a potential fourth logical data center in the future, with preparations being made “in the event the addition of this logical data center is needed earlier than anticipated”
All the above is very reasonable, and while there were clearly issues posed at the beginning of Endwalker’s launch which were not immediately possible to mitigate due to the ongoing worldwide chip shortage, it is nice to see that Square Enix is taking the time to future proof Final Fantasy XIV both during the Patch 6.x cycle and into the next expansion.
I am utterly biased in making this comment, but I hope they consider server demographics in the Japanese data center when splitting the 3 data centers into 4. Looking at the recent (granted, unofficial) FFXIV Census, in terms of the total number of characters on Japanese realms, both Tonberry (>100k) and Kujata (>70k) have the largest listed populations. However, these are pretty much the only two Japanese servers that the English community use, so it would be a shame for them, for example, to be split up – even if the data center travel system will mitigate some of the concerns.
Outside of that concern, pretty much everyone is a winner here!
Final Fantasy XIV is Going Back on Digital Sale Soon
After due consideration of the following factors, we will be resuming digital sales starting on January 25, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. (JST):
- Opening of the Oceanian Data Center, and the capacity to accommodate additional players.
- Our desire to provide a suitable environment for new players in the Oceania region.
- The play time and log in frequency of current players is steadily returning to normal levels.
However, in the event servers continue to experience extreme levels of congestion, we may consider suspending digital sales again. We are aware that certain Worlds are experiencing high server traffic at peak times, and while some may consider this decision to resume sales to be premature, we ask for your understanding in this matter.
We would also like to resume registration for the free trial after monitoring server stability a while longer.
Those looking to play the free trial of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV which includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime, will sadly need to wait a bit longer. However, those who are looking to buy the game will be able to purchase it through digital channels (Both the base game and the Endwalker expansion pack) from 25 January 2022.
Final Words
As someone who is on a Japanese Data Center, which is not a native English-language server, having friends in other regions and moving to the Oceanic data center, I will admit that I am very biased and have a personal stake in some of the changes being made with this expansion.
I plead Yoshi-P and the Final Fantasy XIV development team to revisit cross-region travel at the earliest convenience, even if it means there are more limitations on such visits. in the short to mid-term.
Outside of that, I do applaud the team for taking action towards expanding the game to offer more stability in the future – as it continues to gain momentum from the wider MMORPG audience.
Check out my first impressions review of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
