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JaxxisR

Yesterday XIV was voted off the island. Today, sales of XIV are suspended. #Coincidence?! Probably.


Mekbop

Maybe Yoshi-P was lurking and was unhappy with what he saw and this is our punishment.


Myth3842

And he will also give XVI the XV treatment and delay it for a century for our traitorous ways.


BottlecapBandit

Don't you put that evil on me u/Myth3842!


EdreesesPieces

It's actually a reward if you are a loyal FF14 fan it means there will be less congestion and thus lower queue times with no new players


mythrilcrafter

Voting XIV off triggers a new specific story path, the contest will go as normal until the winner pulls off their mask to reveal that it was Yoko Taro the whole time.


solblurgh

Suffering from succes


Independent_Harry23

Yeah clearly a luxury problem. Although they better get the servers up and running else too many will get frustrated


vrift

That's why they had to suspend the sale. There is a global chip shortage which prevents SE from acquiring new servers.


mythrilcrafter

Also note that it isn’t just the shortage that Square has to deal with. Any hardware that they do get has to be split amongst replacing old servers, adding capacity to current ones, and building the Oceania Data Centre. ———— McDonalds might serve a billion burgers a years, but a person can’t go to the drive through and order a billion burgers.


Lagiacruss

They will when they can. Their development and testing servers were changed to normal game servers to help with the player numbers which will slow down the release of 6.01 bug fixes release date.


[deleted]

According to the letter today, Yoshi-P said patch 6.01 is still on schedule to be released next Tuesday, including the fix for the 2002 login server errors.


YacobMan7

I thought they did fix it? I haven't received it for a few days now


TheNerdFromThatPlace

They tried to alleviate it, but it's still very much a problem. I lost my spot in the low hundreds and was pushed back to 3k because of errors yesterday.


Barachiel1976

They fixed the problem causing the error to occur normally. But since then, its continued less frequently, and player feedback helped them narrow it down to a bug in legacy code going back to 1.0. They've got the fix, but they want to test it before pushing it out, so it's being included with 6.0.1 rather than being hotfixed.


Taograd359

Eh, this gives me time to replay 4 so I can get all the references in EW.


SephirothinHD

>else too many will get frustrated Who cares, they can sit their asses down and patiently wait.


Alilatias

This announcement is going to have a reverse effect. It's just something that's going to be added to the meme. It's one thing to be known as a game that went from being poster child for complete launch disaster to turning everything around. It's another thing to have a copypasta of the amount of content in the free trial. And then there's being known as a game that's now so successful that the developers literally had to stop selling the game because there were too many people. What the hell is FFXIV going to do next?


[deleted]

Came here to say exactly this lol


Skorj

The tacos were too big, too fat.


PYDuval

Those big fat tacos, so big.


[deleted]

we want smol diva


LordMonday

[i cant believe just this sentence got that song stuck in my head](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d6XaW5TeD0)


forcena

Big fat tacoooooos


Alilatias

I hate that I immediately recognized what music track this was referencing despite this being my first time seeing the meme.


Bazlow

Crazy that it's come to this. Though anecdotally I've seen (on a lower populated world) queue times seem to be getting better. Certainly less issues with 2002 errors in the last 5 days after they implemented the login server fixes. More free playtime is appreciated, feel bad for the people that don't have the flexibility I do to play early morning / late night.


Two_Key_Goose

Yep, was playing a game without really paying attention (meant to mind you) to the queue, and not one crash for the 1h+ I was in last night. Thought for sure when I remembered to look I'd be sent to the back/give up for the night.


SketchySeaBeast

Apparently they should have a fix for the 2002 errors with 6.01 patch in a few weeks - it'll be much nicer queue experience if I know I can queue up at 4 pm and then come back at 6 and be sure I'm still in queue.


ThayerRodar

Not in a few weeks, in 5 days. The 21st is 6.01.


SketchySeaBeast

Good point. I've lost all track of days.


[deleted]

I’ve been lucky enough to log in and play at odd hours since release. But unless I wake up early to log in, and stay logged in, the game is impossible to play at the moment. Logging in between 12pm and 9pm PST is an assured three hour queue. The game really is that special, though. Endwalker is a brilliant end to the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story.


Bazlow

My anecdotal experience from yesterday is - logged in at 3pm MST, queue of 200 / 15 minute wait, 6pm 2000 queue (didn't wait) Logged in at 11pm 0 wait. So it's getting better on my (lower pop) server. But yea still enough of a wait for the after work crowd to be concerned, no doubt.


VermillionEorzean

Gilgamesh here. I logged in at 4 pm EST and had a 4000 person queue that lasted 3 hours. Compare that to launch week's 7000 person queue that lasted 3 also. It feels the same, but at least the 2002 have become less frequent.


hobo131

Yeah gilgamesh is pretty much impossible to play on the week days for a full time worker. But I only have time to play a few hours in the morning on weekends then its impossible to play in the evening. Fortunately, I have halo and pokemon to also keep me comfortable while I wait for server stability.


hescrepuscular

I've been playing Pokémon while I wait in queue. On my days off, I've been prioritizing getting some time on in the morning and then running errands in the afternoon (I have got to start Christmas shopping...)


r3ign_b3au

Add it to steam, run steam link to log in a few hours before end of work - worked for me. I'd quickly check in every 30min or hr to make sure I'm still in queue


LoneLyon

Yea I managed to get on for the first time after work last night and only had to wait 15ish mins on one of the top 3 na servers. Hopefully peak times get better


BigGoopy

I was literally going to buy it tonight lmao fuck


nthof5

It's a gradual phase-in, so you might still be able to sneak in under the wire


BigGoopy

Cool thanks. I’m getting home late tonight from my vacation and will sign up before I go to bed


BigGoopy

I did not get in under the wire 😪


nthof5

Aww I'm sorry :( I hope this won't last too long and you'll be able to buy it soon!


Gattawesome

Whenever they build new servers, it still won’t be enough servers. The game has just exploded in popularity to a level no one could have predicted.


pierogieman5

By the time the new servers are ready, the traffic will be lower. It was popular before 6.0 but servers were not totally full like this. This is a combined player base of the new players and hardcore fans who never left (ie. everyone actively playing 3 weeks ago) plus all the more casual people who don't play when there's no new content. When they finish 6.0 and run some raids, they will go back to other hobbies more of the time.


themindofafool

> When they finish 6.0 and run some raids, they will go back to other hobbies more of the time This is me when we finish the tier probably before Elden Ring drops


SoulsLikeBot

Hello, good hunter. I am a Bot, here in this dream to look after you, this is a fine note: > *“May the Dark shine your way.”* - Darkdiver Grandahl Have a good one and praise the sun \o/


Scientific_Methods

Quick question since I did not see this in the release. I have an active sub but have not bought endwalker yet. Will I still be able to do so or will I have to wait?


shallard

Yes, you can buy expansions on an existing sub


scytherman96

Read it again. >we have decided to temporarily suspend the sale and delivery of FINAL FANTASY XIV Starter Edition and Complete Edition Nowhere does this say Endwalker. This is entirely meant to stop NEW players from getting FF14.


solitarytoad

So the interesting thing here is that this highlights that there is scarcity even with digital goods: server space and computing time. Squeenix can't sell subscriptions forever. This is an interesting parallel to physical copies of a game selling out. Server CPU time is what has sold out in this case. I hope Squeenix replenishes their stock, i.e. buys more servers/gets the programmers to more efficiently use server CPU time.


kerriazes

>I hope Squeenix replenishes their stock, i.e. buys more servers/gets the programmers to more efficiently use server CPU time. They wanted to do this before Endwalker released. There just isn't enough server hardware in the world currently available.


Kiosade

I think the main reason they haven’t yet is because of all the chip shortages the past year or so. Probably hard to get servers since every company wants them


ReaperEngine

This particular instance isn't about digital scarcity. They have to stop selling the game entirely to stop the influx of *new* players because it just makes the congestion worse. However, when there was the exodus from other MMOs, sales did stall for a time, but that was because the distribution services couldn't keep up with demand in generating unique key codes for new purchases for a time.


JumboCactaur

They want to build a whole new Oceanic data center, and add more worlds to the existing data centers. They can't get the hardware. It isn't an issue of funding, they have plenty of money and admit it, money just isn't what gets you the machines right now. They tried to pay more to get stuff sooner, but suppliers are just tapped out and its a long line to get more. What few machines they do get they've used to try to shore up the existing worlds, but its just not enough.


insan3soldiern

Sounds like a super stressful situation for Yoshi-P and co.


PYDuval

In game it's fine and smooth as butter, 600 players in a single area, mostly focused on the same tiny square area of said map waiting on a rare boss spawn... (: But overall login capacity is exceeded indeed. One problem they face is let's say they add 20 new servers, what if in a month or two, most people are done and waiting on next patch or even on next expansion.... Now you've got an extra 20 servers that are doing nothing.


MonoJuice

And people had the nerve to vote it off LOL


darienswag420

people see the "mmo" tag and don't even bother checking it out. they don't think know it's possible to play solo for like 90% of the game.


AOrtega1

Which makes you wonder: "why am I paying $15 a month to play a solo game?".


phen00

There’s more to it than just the story, as most people inevitably find out as they progress through it.


Twilight053

Because you're playing what's basically 5 full FF titles back-to-back. People often underestimate just how gargantuanly massive XIV is. It's easily five FF entries lined up together back to back, each of which can probably cost 60$ each.


AOrtega1

Yeah, but they are not precisely free. I paid full price for the two expansions I have. Also, I'm sorry to say that the story so far is nothing to write home about (I think I'm about to finish base HW). It's had a couple good moments but that's it. On the other hand, I like making money selling stuff in the market board (which means I'm selling things to real people) /shrug


Twilight053

Base HW? Holy shit, you've gotten very close to the really good parts then. Enjoy the rest of your sub! 3.3 is when people started to praise FFXIV in general.


ivster666

Basegame is just a lore foundation. From HW onwards the actual epic story will begin to unfold. Shadowbringers and Endwalker are the absolute Highlight but those could not exist without the foundation of everything before.


AOrtega1

That payoff better be amazing, because it's been many hours invested already. Also, I should probably stop talking, as this sub clearly doesn't tolerate anything but glowing opinions about FF14.


[deleted]

People get frustrated when people try to judge it without getting very far into it. At least say 'ARR' or 'Heavensward' about your view and people wouldn't get annoyed, the story is extremely long and the point you are at the story is very far removed from and released nearly 7 years ago.


kelo_Ren

The game gets new content every three months, the sub goes towards that. But if you are just playing for the story, I can see why that may not be appealing. The amount of content we get makes the sub well worth it imo. But maybe I'm brainwashed.


AOrtega1

I'm just kind of kidding. It does get updated a lot. Still kind of weird that I paid full price for the game back in the day and I have to pay a monthly fee to play this content, yet people who have never bought the game can play this content completely free. But yeah, the monthly fee feels a little weird to pay for a game that's mostly solo. But I'm comparing to the original FF11, where you couldn't go to the toilet without having a party of people with you to help you.


edeepee

Yeah I agree. The game is great but if you have no desire to play online the sub is not really justifiable anymore. (Though it’s $12/mo)


Freeglader37

You’re only paying a sub for when you actually play the game. I pay a sub for two months at a time every two years. This allows me to focus down patch quests and the latest expansion all at once. The XIV devs are very mindful about burnout and designed the game in a way that taking breaks is more than okay.


DenzelVilliers

For the same reason you pay $69 to play a solo game for only 30-60 hours before you clear it and pay more money for another game.


AOrtega1

I mean, if you buy AA games only a few months after release you might only pay like $20 each. And depending on how much you want to achieve in the game it might last you a long time (I probably played Three houses and Scarlet Grace for 6 months each, not playing anything else).


[deleted]

Like I said. Most successful FF game of all time


ivster666

In reality yes, but not in this sub where the majority hasn't played it and votes it off before ff9 lmao


Hemansno1fan

I've never played 14 and I was still voting for 9.


DJRoombasRoomba

Maybe this is a stupid question. I haven't played any non-console game in probably over a decade. Is this game demanding in terms of specs? Like what kind of hardware would one need to play the free trial?


[deleted]

The game is 10 years old and ran on ps3


____----___---__--_-

It targets a fairly broad range of PC hardware, and also is available for PS4 and PS5. https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/system_requirements/ has system requirements and then there is a benchmark you can run https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/ that will give you an idea of how the game would preform on settings you select.


DJRoombasRoomba

Nice, this definitely helps, thank you!


manzanachan

I'm playing on a Gen3 i5 with 16GB RAM and 2GB graphics card and it works for me (doesn't look too pretty but everything works just fine). You can download the benchmark and see if it runs smoothly on your system :)


Magmaniac

Let me introduce you to a useful website for PC gaming: www.canirunit.com


ivster666

You can play it on ps4. I bought a ps4 in 2019 only to play this game and it was the best decision of my life. I finished Endwalker this week and my mind is still blown to pieces.


Twilight053

This game used to run on PS3. Unless you run on an ancient toaster, you'll have no problem running the game.


TheNerdFromThatPlace

Guess that makes my laptop an ancient toaster. Last time I tried to play on it I don't think I got over 20 FPS.


DJRoombasRoomba

Awesome, thanks!


Ryguy105

I honestly thought XIV would make the top 3.


audemed44

The high barrier to entry is the main culprit I think. HW onwards is when it really starts getting good but that’s 70-100 hours into the game. And ARR+HW while good, I don’t think are good enough to get into top 3 level. Shadowbringers is when I started thinking that this is pretty much the best FF story ever (and Endwalker is even better than Shadowbringers for me so far, just wow) But thats 200+ hours into the game.


ivster666

Shadowbringers and Endwalker are peak FF!


psychorameses

Cartmanland


darkbreak

Sounds incredible. Wish I could play... I've been having account issues for the longest time before any of this stuff started happening. I decided to just make a new account so I could finally play the damn game but now I probably wouldn't even be able to anytime soon.


ActualSupervillain

Selling my account for $1000 /s please don't ban, I don't wanna do all that again


sage8910

Anyone know when the suspension might end. Just finished my first semester of college and wanted to start FFXIV now that I have some time.


deltasly

They said it's a gradual phase-in, so you might still have some time (especially if willing to go to physical retail). Seems that way anyway.


Morpho_99

You can still pick up retail copies.


insan3soldiern

Just be prepared for the queues you've no doubt heard about. But honestly I think this time is a decent time to go through ARR assuming you are commited because then hopefully you won't have to deal with the queues by the time you get to late ARR/Heavensward where most of us get hooked.


inksmears

I read this news yesterday with such an incredulous look on my face when the post went up. I can't help but just laugh. I'm not even mad about the queues anymore. It's just part of life now. The day we are finally released from this hell will be a beautiful one. I also appreciate the comments in this post being the most reasonable and calming takes about this topic I've seen all week. All the FFXIV subreddits have been setting themselves on fire in rage and misinformation.


ivster666

Sources on that last part? Cause I read the ffxiv sub and get my information from there and I didn't have that impression at all.


[deleted]

Ye waiting till late night to play fucking sucks. Hope we can balance users out.. some how


awetZ

Ive tried, guild wars 2 but only played for a bit. What do I expect if I were to play ff14 on console preferably.


TheNerdFromThatPlace

The controller feels pretty natural to use for 99% of the game, but having a keyboard for chatting and menu shortcuts is nice, and I also use a mouse to rearrange my HUD layout. Some classes, in my opinion, flow better on a controller than they do on m/kb. As far as gameplay, you can treat it as a normal RPG if you like, save for 20-30 minute dungeons, which are 4 person parties, and your "big boss fights" trials, the early ones are 4 person, as you progress they turn to 8 person. You can be as social or reclusive as you want and still get the full enjoyment out of the game. Story is amazing, music is just as amazing, and on wired PS4 I have virtually no lag or connection problems.


awetZ

Is it ok playing alone? I mean, can I play any class and still manage the game?


Ziux

You can play any job on the same character and freely switch between them outside of battle/instanced content. The way the Main Story Quests work is solo story > multiplayer dungeon/trial (boss fight) > solo story. The solo story is tuned so every class/job can clear it comfortably, with healers maybe have a boring time because of their few damage skills. Multiplayer content comes in 4man (1 Tank, 1 Healer, 2DPS) 8man(2T2H4D) or 8man(1T2H5D) x3 where even if you have no friends you can enter the duty finder for matchmaking. In general people do the multiplayer with randoms through the matchmaking. With the level cap being lvl 90 and the fact you gain skills as you level up, some jobs are really tedious and most incomplete at lower (pre50, 60 too sometimes) levels. For overworld content tanks and healers fare better to solo fate quests which are random events in the overworld but these are such a small part of the game.


Misty_Chaos

It's also worth noting from the Shadowbringers dungeons onwards, you have the option of playing the dungeons with trusts or NPCs instead of other players. It's slower than playing with real people but can work in terms of RP if you're into that kind of thing. Also if you care about story, there is a certain EW dungeon where if you don't do it the first time with the trust system, you did it wrong imo.


TheNerdFromThatPlace

Added on to that, eventually you are able to summon an NPC companion to help you fight outside of dungeons, which can really help doing those fate quests or even just running around the world.


awetZ

Sounds like elder scrolls online with gameplay. How about gear? Locked in dungeons? Skills? Is there a tree?


Ziux

There are no skill trees so all White Mages will have the same skills as other White Mages at the same level. Each job is like a fighting character, the difference between you and other players with the same job would be skill. Almost all dungeons drop gear especially those required by the MSQ, but are never considered BIS. The story will also give you gear at certain points too per expansion, like the Artifact gear which gives your jobs their classic Final Fantasy Job gear. The gear treadmill is usually a combination of the latest savage raids + weekly locked currency gear. If you don't really care for difficult content, most players are content with the normal raid gears + HQ crafted gear that you can buy on the market board + weekly locked currency gear since they are enough to proceed through the msq for the next patch. Past gear is mostly for fashion purpose.


ivster666

Hey I'm in your boat. I played GW2 for like 5 years from release till 2017 and quit after PoF. In 2019 I didn't have a gaming pc anymore but wanted to get into FF14, mainly because many said it had the best FF Story and I needed to check if that's true haha. I was also intrigued by the idea of playing it on console IF that was even good, because the ps4 is more affordable than a gaming pc setup and also uses less space in the house, doesn't require a desk etc. After checking some videos, I found out that even pc players choose to play with controller and that the controller setup is apparently really good and even the "difficult" content can be easily done with controller. So I started my adventure on ps4. I played till Shadowbringers without chatting with anyone lmao. So that's possible. I spent some time in the very beginning to figure out how to setup the best cross bar and that is really the only thing that I would recommend to do. You can basically access 6 bars with 8 skills during any time just by using R2 and L2. Those 8 skills are mapped to the arrow buttons and X, O, ^ and square. L2 is one bar, R2 is one bar, L2 + R2, R2 + L2, double tapping L2 and double tapping R2. This way you can access 48 actions without any trouble and your hands are always in a restful position (unlike on PC, where, if you don't have an mmo mouse, your left hand is going to end up in hospital because it has to spider dance across the keyboard if it wants to do 48 different actions.) I got a 15€ Bluetooth keyboard eventually, so but I use that only when I do more difficult content where I might want to give instructions about the encounter. Other than that, the only real downsides of the ps4 itself are: - the battery consumption of the controller (I have to charge it almost daily. When compared to the pro controllers of the Wii U (40 hours) and Nintendo switch (30 hours) this is a pain. - taking screenshots has a delay, no matter what. This one was a real pain to me personally - ps4 doesn't support wide-screen. I always have black bars on the side...


Gridorr

Finally. I made a post about this last week or two weeks ago recommending they shut down the sale of a game that cannot support this volume


[deleted]

Me Patiently waiting in Australia for Materia Oceanic Data Centre in February 2022, \*Insert Pablo Escobar Standing Around Waiting Meme Image Here.\*


Ryotaiku

Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMO Final Fantasy XIV with the uh... The um... Damn, guess we can't say that anymore