New players will temporarily be unable to purchase and play Final Fantasy 14, or register for its free trials, Square Enix announced Thursday morning. The company is suspending sales to help ease the server congestion that many players have been experiencing since early December.
Players have had trouble reliably logging into Final Fantasy 14’s servers since its new expansion, Endwalker, launched into early access on Dec. 3. Two weeks later, the servers are still causing players problems, causing errors and longer-than-average queue times while attempting to log in.
As a result, Square Enix will temporarily pull Final Fantasy 14’s Starter Edition and Complete Edition from sale, preventing new players from getting in on the hit MMO until existing players have had a chance to get through the new content. Square Enix previously announced that paid players would get priority login access over free trial users, but the company is now suspending new free trial registrations entirely, as it’s currently too difficult for them to login at all.
Final Fantasy 14’s sale suspensions will start appearing in stores over the next few days; the game is still available on Steam and other retailers at the time of this writing. However, current players don’t have to worry: Square Enix will continue to sell expansions and Collector’s Edition digital upgrades for active players.
“To those who have been invited by their friends and family who have been considering joining, as well as our retail partners, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and ask for your understanding and cooperation in order to reduce congestion,” said Naoki Yoshida, producer and director of Final Fantasy 14. “We will continue to monitor the situation as we consider the timing around resuming sales.”
As an apology, the studio is also upgrading its free subscription time — which it had previously given players due to Endwalker congestion — from seven days to 21 days, an additional two weeks of playtime. Current advertisements for Endwalker will go on hiatus, too, although Square Enix said it cannot suspend them all.
Square Enix also addressed player concerns regarding the timing of the new patch and raid, suggesting that some hardcore raiders may not be ready in time due to server issues. The studio revealed that, barring a major setback, the new patch and content will still be released Jan. 4, 2022, regardless of the congestion.
This is not the first time Square Enix has suspended Final Fantasy 14 sales. The publisher briefly did so earlier this year when the game’s user base exploded with an influx of new players.
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