Final Fantasy XIV to Resume Digital Sales by End of January

Final Fantasy XIV director, Naoki Yoshida, has announced that digital sales of the MMORPG will resume on Jan. 25.

After an extensive wait since the launch of the game's latest expansion, Endwalker, Final Fantasy XIV will be resuming digital sales on Jan. 25, 2022 at 5 p.m. JST, meaning 3 a.m. ET. Sales of the game have been temporarily suspended due to issues related to server congestion, leading to lengthy wait times for players anxious to gain access.

Yoshida revealed that the "play time and log in frequency of current players is steadily returning to normal levels." The director and producer also clarified that future suspension of sales wasn't out of the question: "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," he continued. "We would also like to resume registration for the free trial after monitoring server stability a while longer."

Final Fantasy XIV to Resume Digital Sales by End of January

Going forward, it seems that Square Enix will also be looking at the expansion of the North American Data Centers. "In order to cope with a drastic increase in player population, we are planning a two-phase major server expansion."

"Due to the global shortage of semiconductors, it has taken considerable time to procure server equipment, but the schedule calls for the first phase to be implemented around August 2022, with the second phase to follow in the spring or summer of 2023."

The news will no doubt be a welcome surprise to many fans eager to start their Final Fantasy XIV adventure. That being said, with the sales suspension ending, it's likely that we could see some congestion around the time of the resumption.