Issue with Sound Not Playing Under Certain Conditions on the Windows® version(May 25)

We would like to report on the current status of our investigation and response regarding the issue preventing sound from playing under certain conditions on the Windows® version.

■Details and Cause of this Issue

In our investigation, we have determined that the issue is caused when the sound device is not being recognized by the computer, and the sound reset process in the game client is executed. This causes the processing of sound to freeze, as a result, the sounds stop playing and the game client cannot be closed properly when trying to exit.

Issues due to this process have been present since Patch 6.0 and have been working without significant impact until now, but there is a high possibility that a different internal process that was changed in Patch 6.4 has triggered this issue.

Depending on the combination of devices, PC usage, and other differences in the environment, the issue may or may not occur in some cases, making it difficult to investigate and identify the cause. However, thanks to the numerous reports we received from the players, we were able to isolate the problem and identify the cause. Thank you very much for your cooperation.


■Prospects for Resolving this Issue

We will continue to prioritize the resolution of this issue, but since it is a core component of sound processing, the following measures will be necessary, and it is expected to take up to two weeks to address this issue.

・Predict possible device combinations in PC environments
・Pattern verification of several PC environments
・Verification of the completion of the fixes in these combinations

We are aware that some players are refraining from progressing through the main scenario until the issue is addressed, and we apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. However, we are striving to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and kindly ask for your patience until then.


■Temporary Workaround

Please attempt to use the following previously reported method which depending on the environment, may temporarily allow you to circumvent the issue.

・If you are using a gamepad that is recognized as a sound device such as "DUALSHOCK 4" or "DualSense", please try and disable the corresponding sound device from the sound settings of your computer and restart the client.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

*Edited on June 5, 2023 5:35 a.m. (PDT) / Jun. 6, 2023 12:35 (GMT) / Jun. 6, 2023 13:35 (BST) / Jun. 6, 2023 22:35 (AEST)
The issue above was fixed during the maintenance that took place from Jun. 5, 2023 11:00 p.m. to Jun. 6, 2023 2:20 a.m. (PDT) / Jun. 6, 2023 6:00 to 9:20 (GMT) / Jun. 6, 2023 7:00 to 10:20 (BST) / Jun. 6, 2023 16:00 to 19:20 (AEST).
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.