Final Fantasy 14’s producer and director Naoki Yoshida has addressed the recent server congestion issues blighting the long-running MMO following a “staggering and unexpected” increase in the game’s popularity.
“Final Fantasy 14 is currently experiencing a dramatic increase in its player base,” Yoshida explained in a post to the game’s website. “Recently, we have experienced record user numbers in all regions, with a vast amount of new players beginning their adventures.” Indeed, the game successfully smashed its record for concurrent players on Steam earlier this month, reaching 47,542 concurrent players versus the previous record of 41,200 set in June 2019.
Although undoubtedly a boon for the potential longevity of the now-decade-old MMO, this “extreme influx” of new players, as Yoshida puts it, has placed a strain on Final Fantasy 14’s servers, with congestion issues causing lengthy queue times and preventing players from creating new characters.
Yoshida breaks down the technical reasons behind both issues in considerably more detail in his post, noting that fixing Final Fantasy 14’s congestion woes if current player counts persist will ultimately require additional world servers and data centres.
Yoshida says that, due to the surge of interest in the MMO, Square is currently reevaluating its previously announced server and data centre expansion plans to see if it’s possible to speed things up. Unfortunately, a decrease in semiconductor production and travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic are hampering those efforts, but Yoshida insists Square will continue to do its utmost “to see this goal realised as soon as reasonably possible”.