Patch 8.0 - How long is too long to wait?

[Nanchi]

Already quit for a year after DTs rather poor performance. Only came back to see if the post DT quests are any good but if it truly takes another /year/ for the expansion to release I might as well call it quits again after this month runs out. Abysmal content scheduling as usual. You'd think by now they would have learned that going 6-7-8 months without any meaningful content would eventually lead to players quitting, especially with how bad this expansion was. Recently went back to check out Dawntrails content overview and I'm still in disbelief how they're advertising these expansions having all of this new content and gameplay features but in reality you really just pay for the entry fee of Dawntrail. Content like Cosmic Exploration, only got released almost a year after DTs release. Beastmaster is still missing, teased features like the strategy board only recently got introduced in 7.4 (!). I really dislike this tactic of drip feeding us advertised expansion features throughout 2+ years while the base expansion launches with the same cookie cutter pipeline we've known since HW.

Not only is 8.0 overdue, knowing how we won't see 50% of the major features they will promote for the first 1.5 years of the game really puts a damper on things. It's no surprise that people will feel extra jaded if the story is terrible, since that is one of the few new contents we get to enjoy for a while (alongside the accompanied battle content like dungeons and extremes). Q4 2026 is all I'm giving this game, SE has been given way too much grace for way too many years to keep treating this game like a money cow they don't need to invest in because the playerbase is complacent and gullible enough to keep throwing money at a subpar product.

[LCROSSE]

I will wait however is long enough to put out a QUALITY product. I'm not so entitled that I cant wait for them to give us something worthy of my money/time.
Will I be sad to have to wait that long... Sure maybe, but just because it takes a while, doesnt mean I'm going to invalidate everything that came before it that captivated me for so long. Just like with 1.0 into 2.0.. I'm fine waiting.

[GraceHorizon]

I would anticipate 8.0 will release in early 2027, probably January, based on the release schedule SE has had so far. (It’s a little over 4 months per patch and the .5 patch is double length, so that puts 8.0 about 13 months after 7.4.)

As for the next expansion being worth the wait … only time will tell. Having started playing only 3.5 years ago during 6.1 I’m still a relative newcomer. That said, I do feel the decline in quantity and quality of new content, particularly the writing, in the Dawntrail patches — which is a real problem for a story-driven game. I don’t doubt that 8.0 will bring out an interesting array of new dungeons and Trials, and I am curious to see what the devs do with job design, but I’m skeptical that the writing will pick up.

Meanwhile we’re headed into the 7.4 content lull and I’ve accomplished all the major things I wanted to do this patch, so I’ll soon settle back into getting my weekly limited tomestones and free up more time away from FFXIV for other things.

[Palladiamors]

YoshiPR's lip service aside, they seem to firmly be in their "They will unconditionally eat slop and beg us for more" phase and just assume that players will put up with any kind of quality or schedule and just stay subbed forever. I'm not expecting anything before Q2 2027.

Which is sad because Yoshida talked about that very thing after he bailed out XIV the first time. I just hope they pull out of the spiral before it's too late.

[ObscuraFi]

after he bailed out XIV the first time.

yoshi p interview: 8.0 " second rebirth"

[NightHour]

If we look at the Patch cycles..


Patch 7.3 released on August 5, 2025

Patch 7.4 released on December 16 2025.


This is a 19 week wait


So if we take December 16 and add 19 weeks to that we will be looking at an approximate release date for Patch 7.5 of 28th April 2026


There were 273 days from Patch 6.5 releasing until Dawntrail released.


If we added 273 days to 28th April 2026 we would get 26th January 2027



I think 8.0 will either be late 2026 (probably december) or Q1 2027.

[Deejudanne]

probably after next wow expansion so like late 2027 mid 2028

[NightHour]

probably after next wow expansion so like late 2027 mid 2028

WoW midnight releases in 3 weeks time..

2nd March.


Lost Titans (12.0) prob wont be ready til late 28 early 29.

[Daralii]

WoW midnight releases in 3 weeks time..

2nd March.


Lost Titans (12.0) prob wont be ready til late 28 early 29.

Midnight's coming out about a year and a half after War Within, so I doubt it'll be quite that long.

[Kisshu]

If we look at the Patch cycles..


Patch 7.3 released on August 5, 2025

Patch 7.4 released on December 16 2025.


This is a 19 week wait


So if we take December 16 and add 19 weeks to that we will be looking at an approximate release date for Patch 7.5 of 28th April 2026


There were 273 days from Patch 6.5 releasing until Dawntrail released.


If we added 273 days to 28th April 2026 we would get 26th January 2027



I think 8.0 will either be late 2026 (probably december) or Q1 2027.

At minimum 8.0 won't release before JP FanFest, end October/start November. We did get a hit that it might come soon after JP-FF, but you have to add some time for general marketing to drum up hype for those that don't follow the FFs, and the whole media tour. If that takes under a month, it could be November 27th for early access. That's roughly the same release time EW had, but after that they did say they would like to avoid launching the game up to the holidays again. So it's easier to push it to January. And that will still keep it in the same fiscal year.