Square Enix has used the Fan Festival 2026 keynote in Berlin to lay out a broad slate of information for Final Fantasy XIV Online, spanning the MMORPG’s sixth expansion (including two separate crossover raid series), the game’s arrival on Nintendo Switch 2, and more. Sitting at the centre of the announcements is Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold, which is scheduled to launch in January 2027 and will begin the Godless Realms Saga story arc. An extended teaser trailer released alongside the reveal offers a look at the world of the Fourth and the situation awaiting the Warrior of Light
Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida used the keynote to name the first job joining the expansion. Bastion is a main tank that fights with a pair of greatshields called skyltborg, and it was shown off in its own dedicated showcase trailer (below). Players will take the job into the Icebound Realm of the Fourth, where three new locations were confirmed: Naglfar, the Realmship of Water; Hringhorni, the Realmship of Fire; and a new city named Fargarth.
Structurally, Evercold will alter how the main scenario is delivered. Changes are being made to the narrative structure, the field, and the game system so that players can decide which area to complete first out of several available paths through the main scenario. Supporting this is Auto Content Balancing, which adjusts difficulty scaling and enemy levels to suit the player’s level as they work through dungeons in whichever order they pick.
Two customisation features were also outlined. Character Action Skins will let players assign alternate animations to existing General actions such as Teleport and Warp, with additional skin types including job actions planned for future updates. Character creation is being expanded as well, adding a colour picker with a wider range of options, the ability to fine-tune features such as eyes and lips, and new elements including eye shadow.
The EVANGELION – Ghosts of Desire alliance raid series, first announced in April, received a fresh teaser trailer. This was complemented with news that director and animator Mahiro Maeda has joined the project as a special guest artist and designer. Maeda’s credits include work as a concept artist and designer on Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and roles as director, concept art director, storyboard artist, art setting designer and key animator on EVANGELION:3.0 +1.0 THRICE UPON A TIME (2021).
A second crossover was confirmed with Final Fantasy VII Remake series Director Naoki Hamaguchi joining Yoshida on stage. Titled Beyond the Lifestream, this will serve as the next expansion’s 8-player raid, themed around Final Fantasy VII, with both development teams collaborating on its creation.
Ahead of the expansion, the game is heading to a new platform. Final Fantasy XIV arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 on Tuesday 4 August 2026, with pre-orders opening on the Nintendo eShop from today. The Free Trial, Starter Edition, Complete Edition and Dawntrail all become available on that date.
Several updates were also confirmed for the patches leading into Evercold. Patch 7.5x will move matchmaking to operate across entire physical data centres instead of being restricted by logical data centres, starting in Japan in mid-October before rolling out to North America and Europe. Patch 8.1 is also set to bring an overhaul of the chocobo companion system, including changes to chocobo raising and the option to summon a chocobo to assist in dungeons. Separately, a Final Fantasy VII themed typing mini-game called Keybound Brawler will join the Gold Saucer on Wednesday 28 October 2026, supporting up to four players.
