Final Fantasy 14 players will receive free game time to make up for congestion issues
FF14 boss Naoki Yoshida has shared details on the login issues and the compensation players can expect.
After almost a year of excitement, Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker’s highly anticipated early access period has been predictably turbulent, with players all over the world reporting an inability to log into the critically acclaimed MMO’s latest expansion. According to a blog post published in response to the issue, fixes and compensation are on the way.
It’s no surprise that Endwalker has already attracted such enormous crowds. Last week, Square Enix warned players that server traffic would likely reach unprecedented levels at launch. Given that this weekend’s early access period has already faced massive problems with congestion, it’s not unreasonable to suggest things will get worse before they get better.
As a means of remedying this, Final Fantasy 14 boss Naoki Yoshida recently took to the game’s Lodestone blog in order to share details of why the login issues have occurred, what compensation players can expect and how spamming dance emotes doesn’t actually allow anyone to bypass a hardware issue this complex.
“Across the FFXIV service as a whole, the number of simultaneous logins has reached the hardware limit, and as a result, logging in has required an extremely long time, especially during ‘peak hours’ when we tend to see increased player activity,” Yoshida-san writes. “For this, I am truly sorry.”
“Considering that we are asking players to wait in queues for extremely long periods of time and the ongoing situation making it difficult to play normally, we have decided that during the official release of Endwalker on December 7, we will be granting 7 days of free game time to all players who own the full version of the game and have an active subscription.”
Yoshida-san also notes that this includes anyone who is currently subscribed to the 30-day free play period included with the full version of the game. Players with multiple accounts can also benefit from free game time, which may be extended even further depending on how the congestion situation develops from here on out.
As for the congestion itself, players have reportedly experienced a variety of different errors. If you’ve encountered an Error 2002 message, Square Enix suggests using an ethernet cable to avoid temporary lapses in stability, which can affect login attempts. For those playing on PS4 or PS5, it is recommended to ensure you don’t have Rest Mode or Power Saving Mode enabled. In both cases, these measures will decrease the chance of disconnecting during long queues.
Other errors including 4004, 5003 and 5006 all pertain strictly to the length of time you spend queuing, meaning there’s no easy fix for them. Instead, Square Enix has shared details of what it has perceived as ‘peak times’ during the early access period. It is recommended that all players avoid the following times to maximize the likelihood of logging in as quickly as possible.
North American Data Center: 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. GMT European Data Center: 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. PST / 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. GMT Japan Data Center: 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. PST / 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. GMTFinally, Yoshida-san explains that anyone claiming to evade automatic logout timers using dance emotes or dummy attack animations is spoofing. While it may look as if they’re staying logged in and taking up space in the server, they’re still subject to the same 30-minute inactivity timer as everybody else. Speaking of which, if you’re being logged out during the end credits sequence for any of the game’s various expansions, Yoshida-san has the following advice:
“We apologise for the inconvenience, but when viewing the ending credits for A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers, we ask that you press a button on your controller, press a key on your keyboard, or click with your mouse. By doing so before 30 minutes pass, you will be able to reset the automatic logout timer. Please also note that simply moving your mouse cursor will not prevent automatic logout. This issue will be added to a list of known issues in a separate announcement.
Once again, I would like to apologise for the many inconveniences caused to our players as a result of the congestion that has continued since the start of Early Access. I am truly sorry, and we will continue to do our utmost to address the congestion situation and the errors during login queues as soon as possible.”
Written by Cian Maher on behalf of GLHF.