Final Fantasy XIV Data Center Expansion, Restoration of Digital Sales Detailed

Following on from its recent update regarding congestion in Final Fantasy XIV after the release of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, Square Enix provided new details about forthcoming upgrades to the MMORPG’s Data Centers and its player capacities. In a message on the Final Fantasy XIV Lodestone, director and producer Naoki Yoshida addressed the current status and future plans for each of the game’s regional Data Centers.

Firstly, the game’s Oceania Data Center will now launch two weeks ahead of the previous schedule on January 25, 2022 (all dates are relevant to Japan Standard Time). The Oceania Data Center will launch with five Worlds. As an incentive for Oceania-based players to transfer to the new Data Center, Square Enix will be waiving the regular transfer fee for doing so. The Home World Transfer Service will resume a day after the launch of the Oceania Data Center and will be available to all players, regardless of region.

Square Enix will also be expanding the other data centers. The Japan Data Centers will keep the same number of Worlds, but they will be reorganised from three to four logical data centers, which will increase the maximum capacity of simultaneous logins, with the upgrade currently slated for July 2022. The North American Data Centers will expand from three logical data centers to four, with the new fourth logical data center to host eight new Worlds. The first four Worlds will be added in August 2022, with the remaining four to follow later. Finally, the European Data Centers will get two new Worlds added to each of its existing two data centers, bringing the total of Worlds to sixteen, in July 2022. A second phase in summer 2023 will add a further logical data center with eight additional Worlds.

With these upgrades, Square Enix announced that it plans to resume digital sales of Final Fantasy XIV with the launch of the Oceania Data Center on January 25, 2022. However, it did note that it may suspend them again should extreme congestion issues continue to arise. Registrations for the game’s Free Trial version will not resume yet.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is the fourth expansion to the MMORPG — following Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers — and was released for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 in December 2021. Those looking to read more about Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker can check out RPGamer’s review of the PlayStation 5 version.