The Next Live Letter is on October 31st, which means 7.4 is likely mid December..

[Heavenchild]

I'd not be too quick to doompost. WoW was in a very similar position during Shadowlands when most people left to FFXIV. They were constantly accused of not listening to player feedback and even doubling down on the decision to make covenants non-changable, then really punishing to change, and finally after much arguing actually easy to swap. Their argument was that it was a very RPGesque decision that had consequences, but we're talking about a MMO here where players would boot you out of DF if you had the wrong covenant for the class because "muh meta". WoW was in a state of "this is it, the end of the top MMO" and somehow it was able to persist, turn around, shuffle things and now it's back to being in the race against FFXIV. Ebbs and flows. Squeanix will eventually need to shuffle things around sooner rather than later, and things will start picking back up. The MSQ design in the newer patches is already on the right track.

(Unrelated note but Power Wash Simulator is an awesome game!)

I really hope you’re right, but honestly I just can’t see it anymore. Sadly, SE isn’t exactly known for making good decisions. :’)
The biggest issue is still the game’s engine and underlying code. This game just isn’t future-proof anymore. It's far too limited.
They missed the chance to rework it at the right time, and now it would take far too long.

Many veterans are already fed up and leaving, while younger players seem to have less and less interest in MMOs like FF14 in general.

That’s why I just don’t see it anymore. Dawntrail was the perfect moment to bring out something truly new and big. But they missed it.
Instead, it’s a huge disappointment after the 2–3 years of Endwalker content drought. Ruining even many character faces (and with them
the personalities players were attached to).
Add to that a terrible MSQ and a downright stupid release schedule that leaves most players bored. In my eyes it’s cooked.
But I hope you're right. I want FF14 to success.

[CNitsah]

We either stick to the schedule or it is delayed into January which will then delay everything and you\\'re looking at mid-2027 or summer 2027 for 8.0. HELL NO. The no content gap between 7.55 and 8.0 would longer than it has ever been and no one wants that just to appease the very loud vocal minority of savage raiders.

How do you get to mid 2027? With the timing of the fanfests next expansion will probably release in december next year. Even with the 19 week scheldule they follow (114 weeks for a full expac) there is still a 3 month period to fill. So no, even with one more month of delay per patch, it would not lead us to mid 2027 but late 2026.

[Daralii]

How do you get to mid 2027? With the timing of the fanfests next expansion will probably release in december next year. Even with the 19 week scheldule they follow (114 weeks for a full expac) there is still a 3 month period to fill. So no, even with one more month of delay per patch, it would not lead us to mid 2027 but late 2026.

The next VII remake installment is supposed to come out next year, and they've been coinciding those with the original's birthday in January/February, so some people think that they'll save the next XIV expansion to pad the first quarter of the next fiscal year.

[TaleraRistain]

How do you get to mid 2027? With the timing of the fanfests next expansion will probably release in december next year. Even with the 19 week scheldule they follow (114 weeks for a full expac) there is still a 3 month period to fill. So no, even with one more month of delay per patch, it would not lead us to mid 2027 but late 2026.

The JP Fan Fest is October 31st and November 1st. It is highly unlikely they're going to release that soon after the JP Fan Fest. There's usually a few months after the final Fan Fest.

[Hyperia]

The JP Fan Fest is October 31st and November 1st. It is highly unlikely they're going to release that soon after the JP Fan Fest. There's usually a few months after the final Fan Fest.

Yoshi implied that it could be as early as December as we wouldn’t have to wait long after the final fan fest.

On a side note, I find it amusing that almost everybody is complaining about savage scheduling and not the potential content outside of raiding in this thread.

[Amarande]

On a side note, I find it amusing that almost everybody is complaining about savage scheduling and not the potential content outside of raiding in this thread.

Most likely because (well, except for maximum gil making off of new crafted gear) Savage and EX are where you feel it the most if you don't get in on content when it drops (and don't want to wait for it to be utterly trivialized by later expansions). Everything else is going to be there forever, and is going to be current for at least a year (with the Fanfest schedule, we're looking at Heavyweight being XIV's Siege of Orgimmar moment, lol).

[Alicie]

This is all why I wonder if SE may be pushing towards a new MMO in the Final Fantasy series. The mobile remake team has made Crystal Tower function with a team of 8. FFXIV is actually still doing very well financially and is healthy, but the people of the WoW exodus ran back to WoW as soon as Blizzard got their act together and many quit thanks to the lockdowns ending, while SE fell into the trap many large gaming conglomerates did in fully expecting the numbers to stay very high and not return to exactly where they had been pre-Covid.

I don't think FFXIV is in any danger, but I fully expect this "part two" of the main story to end much, much sooner than the original 14 year long epic we had with 1.0 to 6.0, and that possibly be the conclusion in general.

You can not just expect FFXIV's players to just that easily abandon their characters, houses, gil, items, achievements, purchased mog station items and have them move to another MMO. No, if SE will dwindle FFXIV down, FFXIV players - most of them - will not move to new MMO at all. SE will have to attract brand new audience and they will have to offer something as revolutionary as no other MMO offered in order to succeed. Can they pull it off? I'm not quite sure about that.

[Shistar]

You can not just expect FFXIV's players to just that easily abandon their characters, houses, gil, items, achievements, purchased mog station items and have them move to another MMO. No, if SE will dwindle FFXIV down, FFXIV players - most of them - will not move to new MMO at all. SE will have to attract brand new audience and they will have to offer something as revolutionary as no other MMO offered in order to succeed. Can they pull it off? I'm not quite sure about that.

There is a possibility that (if for some nonsensical reason) they wanted to kill their flagship MMO and replace it with a new one (again, why??) they could do something ala Legacy player rewards and make it possible to port character data such as appearance and some of our items to the new game if they were to be compatible. XIV is doing well according to them for now, so they have no reason to do anything about it... as annoying as that is to the playerbase.

[Daralii]

Aside from Beastmaster launch and new Blue Mage levels, I don't remember what other content they have left to release for the expansion.

North Horn and Forked Tower: Magic, at least one variant dungeon, and I think the second ultimate was soft confirmed for 7.5X.

[ForteNightshade]

Yoshi implied that it could be as early as December as we wouldn’t have to wait long after the final fan fest.

On a side note, I find it amusing that almost everybody is complaining about savage scheduling and not the potential content outside of raiding in this thread.

Yoshida implies a lot of things. Not having to wait long could be February, March or even April as that is technically not as long as Dawntrail releasing in July. I suspect the earliest we'll see 8.0 is end of January, but I'm leaning more towards February or March now.

As for raiders complaining about the schedule, that's because the other content isn't really impacted by holidays. Nobody is World Racing or Week 1-ing the MSQ. At least not in the context of it being a challenge to complete.