Final Fantasy XIV Is Currently Unavailable in North America

[Imora]

Time for a fourth data center, this time on the east coast (hahahaha).

It used to be on the east coast and i still needed a VPN to get around the absolute trash pathing.

Connecting to Montreal from Pittsburgh and bunnying mudras was embarrassing.

[Vahlnir]

Yet classic was very sucessful

It is hard to gauge just how successful it is because a single WoW sub buys access to WoW Classic, TBC Classic and retail. And Blizzard doesn't share that data anymore. They muddied the water on purpose, I believe. What IS obvious, however, is that players are fleeing retail, and by doing so fleeing WoW's classic servers by unsubbing.

[Nepentha]

I can tell you why this is happening. Popular WoW streamers are trying and talking about the game, generating hype. (Not just Asmongold, he followed other streamers not the other way around.) WoW has been eating its own tail for years, but with the latest patch and its disastrous storyline reveal (12k dislikes compared to 4.5k likes on Youtube), its devs seeming inability to listen to the playerbase, and the long content droughts, players are finally getting fed up enough to look at other MMOs. I'm sure GW2, ESO and other MMOs are also seeing an uptick in players. Tack on the free to play model now taking you through Heavensward and the Free Login campaign on top of all that and you get this.

(For the record, FFXIV is not a WoW killer, no game can do that except WoW tbh. The devs aren't concentrating on doing that, they just want to make a game that they also love to play. And people playing other, unsatisfactory MMO games, are noticing it.)

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It used to be on the east coast and i still needed a VPN to get around the absolute trash pathing.

Connecting to Montreal from Pittsburgh and bunnying mudras was embarrassing.

Yeah, this. It's funny how much people have forgotten just how bad the routes were when the servers were in Montreal.

I had better connections from Florida to the west coast than I did to there.


Level3 used to be the Meme for disconnects and lag

[Jeeqbit]

Even if the game cannot be bought, a new character can still be created using the free trial so the information on that website is false.

[Garet]

In fairness, SE could never have anticipated that the release of a new WoW patch/raid, as well as the long awaited release of TBC-classic would happen to be the time when everyone would start fleeing WoW. By all logic- this being a downtime for FFXIV and a huge double release in their main competitor makes this the absolute least likely time for what is happening to be happening.

Especially with Blizz clearly planning their release to coincide with the original Ashes alpha release/ESO xpac because they love to do that to try to smother hype for other games, I love seeing this backfire on them, knowing that it'll be half a year before they can produce anything else.

It really is bizarre for there to be so much attention now, but it's a great thing- FFXIV clearly has a problem of limited resources, I think the cuts and the current state of their store/account system shows that, so maybe SE will see this surge and treat the game with the same respect that the dev team clearly does, as it's impressive what they've managed to pull off.

Hopefully they can get their store problems sorted out, it'd be great to see a massive surge get retained with EW.

Agree with all your points. Hope SE acts quickly and give Yoshi and his team the additional resources they deserve to sustain the current momentum in popularity and improve the game massively so that the new players coming in now and in endwalker will further sustain that momentum through word of mouth with their experience in the game.

[Almagnus1]

They probably didn't think Blizzard was going to be as foolish as they were with Shadowlands.

Nobody expects their competition, especially GOOD competition, to play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver.

[Garet]

Nobody expects their competition, especially GOOD competition, to play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver.

LOL. your comment was so direct

[DynnDiablos]

I think it is time SE ended the free trial campaigns through Heavensward, at least a month or two before Endwalker. Everything needs to go back to PAID. Period. Otherwise, Early Access to EndWalker is going to be an utter disaster. Hopefully, they can create enough instances within the new areas to handle the influx of players, though it is very possible by November popular WoW streamers quit and this will all be moot.

[SDaemon]

Otherwise, Early Access to EndWalker is going to be an utter disaster.

Raubahn Savage, look forward to it!