Quote Originally Posted by Voidmage View Post
8.0 will probably come out fall 2026.
Summer 2026 will be too soon and forcing it into summer 2027 might even kill this game entirely because peoples patience is already thin with the patch cycles and it would need some huge changes way above the graphics update to defend that.

They will probably change between summer and fall like Jeeqbit wrote.


I think there will be a small first announcement of fan fest and I am honestly really interested in it..
The time between the final major patch of an expansion to the following expansion launch has been increasing every expansion since SB. To release in the fall of 2026, they'd have to push out 8.0 significantly faster than 7.0, just to release in what is technically fall but literally still the month of December. While that's technically possible, I don't think it's likely at all. Even to push 8.0 out in what people traditionally think of when they think of the Fall months (September/October) they'd have to push out the game faster than from 4.5 to 5.0. That would be 25 weeks (4.5 to ShB launch) for mid/late Oct compared to the 39 weeks for DT, which would land on Jan 26th, 2027.

Additionally, there's another factor to consider. At the Korean Fanfest prior to DT, Yoshi-P told the audience that their plan for 8.0 is to launch BOTH the Chinese and Korean versions simultaneously with the international version. Now, at the time he said the work on the Chinese end of whatever infrastructure was necessary for this was already completed, but not the Korean infrastructure. This isn't the issue. The issue is that China's version of FFXIV launched DT roughly 3 months behind the international version, and the Korea version roughly 5 months behind. Now they've slowly been closing this gap for Korea with releasing the major patches on a slightly shorter delay compared to the expansion launch, but the Korean version is still ~4 months behind the international version. While China's patch cycle is unchanged and still 3 months behind the international version.

So they can 1) Drastically shorten the delay between patches for the Korea and Chinese versions to catch up with the international version, 2) Delay the international release of 8.0, or 3) A combination of the two. So far they've barely done any of #1.

If they don't significantly shorten these gaps, with the current gap Korea wont get 7.5 until the very last week of August 2026. Not to mention 7.55 which as you know contains the last MSQ as well as most likely the final zone of the Occult Crescent and the final stage of the relic grind. They're not going to release 8.0 in the Fall and essentially hose both the Chinese and Korean player-bases out of having time to experience the end of expansion content. Either Yoshi-P doesn't live up to his promise that he told Korea, or 8.0 takes longer to come out than people would like.

Unfortunately I think any sooner than Q1 of 2027 is a pipe dream.