Is SE prepared for the Endwalker tsunami?

[NegativeS]

If you look at the World of Warcraft forums right now, and within the game itself, the majority of the posts on the front page of their GD are either talking about the allegations, or complaining about the severe lack of quality in content. Both topics come with waves and waves of people proclaiming the end of their subscription to the game.

XIV is currently in a content drought, while WoW just released a major patch for Shadowlands. Despite both of these, all signs point to WoW players leaving the game in waves and droves, with a large part of these coming to XIV. Already the effects of this can be felt, with SE having to put measures in place to manage to quickly growing population.

If this is how things are during a content drought, is SE at all prepared for what may happen when Endwalker releases? With WoW seemingly in a death spiral, it seems like a lot of old Warcraft addicts are beginning to crowd around the exit door, which means they're going to be looking for a new MMO to scratch that itch. A new MMO that has a new expansion dropping in less than 4 months...

Something wicked this way comes.

[ItMe]

Are they ready?

The answer is... they're working on it


Actually, yesterday Yoshi P put out a statement about just this.
He talked about what's causing the log in problem, giving some under the hood insight on the technical side of the problem, and what they're trying to do about it all.
If you wanna read what he said:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...0acb6c23ccd07f

[Gobio]

Well people ditching WOW to try out FF14 is one thing.
FF14 itself offering a great product naturally attracting people is another thing.

If the later is that important, most people would already jump ship to play FF14 just for shadowbringer already and would not wait this long.

[Neoyoshi]

A small handful of new mmorpg's release before Endwalker, so that might help ease the initial influx a bit, but realistically, Endwalker's influx shouldn't be all that different then Shadowbringer's influx was, and Stormblood's influx before it.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

[Shougun]

Are they ready?

The answer is... they're working on it


Actually, yesterday Yoshi P put out a statement about just this.
He talked about what's causing the log in problem, giving some under the hood insight on the technical side of the problem, and what they're trying to do about it all.
If you wanna read what he said:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...0acb6c23ccd07f

Nice, that's actually pretty quick feedback on the matter given that we're not suffering any real tsunami yet. Normally companies wait till the fire is almost out before saying "oh yeah by the way there was a fire- lmao", here we're at the pre-smoke and we've a post. Thumbs up for that.

As for thread question, the last expansion did very well in handling the influx and influx there was. . . it seems like there might be a bigger one this time (nice job for SE), but giving benefit of the doubt, I think they can manage. Although I'm not sure one should be taking vacation days off just in case the queue times or what have you do pop up to be an issue. It's not like rough launches is a foreign concept for MMOs, it's almost the only way you can have a launch in this genre lol, the fact ShB was so smooth was almost weird to experience .

[CaedemSanguis]

A small handful of new mmorpg's release before Endwalker, so that might help ease the initial influx a bit, but realistically, Endwalker's influx shouldn't be all that different then Shadowbringer's influx was, and Stormblood's influx before it.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

there is already more activity than during ShB launch

[Swimcito]

A small handful of new mmorpg's release before Endwalker, so that might help ease the initial influx a bit, but realistically, Endwalker's influx shouldn't be all that different then Shadowbringer's influx was, and Stormblood's influx before it.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

there is already more influx than when Shadowbringers lol... And you also need to take into account "returning ff14 players" ...

I Think the first few weeks of Endwalker, its going to be a bloodbath on the servers. I hope i am wrong ....

If they do not manage to procure the servers, maybe they will have to consider a deal with AWS or something like that, rent few resources, and then step by step, reintegrate on premises when the heat subsides...

[Jettinson]

If I am not mistaken some area get multiple instances, right? I remember Lakeland having multiple so I think they will prepare accordingly for launch compared to now which was supposed to be dead time

[Tint]

No they are not prepared.

We have more players than ever right now and SE said they have recieved 180% more pre-orders for Endwalker than they had for Shadowbringers. That's almost 3 times as much. And there are still some months left, so the number will get even bigger.

And then they said expanding the hardware to increase server capacity is basically impossible because of the semiconducter shortage.

So... Endwalker release will be rough.

[Wavaryen]

Well people ditching WOW to try out FF14 is one thing.
FF14 itself offering a great product naturally attracting people is another thing.

If the later is that important, most people would already jump ship to play FF14 just for shadowbringer already and would not wait this long.

The problem with mmorpgs is that as some people get older. It becomes harder and harder to invest into new mmorpgs as it is a huge time sink. Wow for many players fits like an old glove, and it is hard to get into a new one. Heck that is for many mmorpgs.



That is why the MMORPG market is so hard to get a foot in, because the game style itself asks for tons of players time and investment. FF14 pulls you in with the story, that is how they get you.