Disappointed in new release date.

[Saimeren]

TLDR: What the heck man? I took time off work to play on release.


As I'm sure you all know by now, but the Endwalker release date has been pushed back to December 7th.

As a new player to the game, I was really excited for my first expansion launch with this game; but now I can't help but feel disappointed.

I based my vacation days around Endwalker's release date so that I could play for a solid week before going back to my busy work scheduel.

I had plans to level Sage for the first few days and then head into the story.

I know I'll probably get remarks like "It's your own fault for taking time off.. That has nothing to do with Square"

Or;

"You can still play after work. The game's not going anywhere. You'll have plenty of time before the next patch to be able to catch up"

Or;

"You'll get a better experience out of it if they push it back to work on it more"

But none of that is the point. The point is, they made a decision, and are now backing out of it. They set a date months ago saying "This is the day the game will launch.. Pin it in your calendar." And at the last minute are deciding to renege on that.

Sure, it's not Square's problem that I wanted to take the time to properly play their expansion. It's on me for booking the time off that they told me I'd be able to play their game.

Sure, the game's not going anywhere.. It's an MMO, I have all the time in the world to play and catch up. But I don't want to spend all the time in the world to play and catch up. I wanted to be able to level my Sage and start the story before heading back to work. I wanted to take the time on that first week to put actual effort into the game.

Sure, there may be slight improvements to the game if they release it two weeks late. But what improvements can they make in those two weeks that they couldn't have made in the last several months? Why is this decision being made now? What improvements are being made that are so crustal that it'll take longer to produce the game? An why is this just coming to light now?

How is it that these improvements are so important as to push the game back, but they didn't know about them earlier? Even if they had been working on them early and still haven't finished them; they could take a look at their timeline and push the release date a few months ago, rather than just over one month until release.

All I'm saying, is that it feels a little disrespectful to push the launch date this close to release.

Imagine going out on a date, or with friends and you get ready and all done up, just for them to text you a few mins before meet-up for them to say "Oh, by the way, I decided not to go.. I'd rather just clean the house instead. Lets do it another day."

You'd lose your faith in your friend/date. You'd think "Wow. They're not a man/woman/other of their word. They can't even hold up their end of the plan. We made a plan in advance, and they back out at the last minute... Great friend."

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

As to your comparison, now imagine that that friend had been on time for 8 years, and then once had to postpone due to an issue. Would that cloud your opinion?


Not really.


The only reason besides being able to play the expansion I wish it wasn't delayed was to keep all these disingenuous threads from popping up...


Were all disappointed. Most of us are adults tho, and move on. This puts the expansion squarely in my finals time period for college, and I work full time. I'm not going to have the most time to play on release. I got over it. I'm more excited to see how the story ends than my disappointment in being unable to play much when it happens.

[Lunalepsy]

It's just a private company. Why are people overreacting to this?

[Jeeqbit]

A lot of people take vacation for it. Yoshi-P even acknowledged this. In all the time since Yoshi-P has done this, patch release days have been consistent and predicted years ahead of times, there has not been a prior expansion release date change and it was already delayed by a month or more, so the odds were in your favor, it just didn't work out that way this time unfortunately.

[Derio]

Yes we all took vacation time off. Yes we are disappointed. But i would much rather have the servers in a working state rather than experience Raughban extreme or something worse like in SB launch.

Plus this gives them more time to fix DRK.

[Saimeren]

A lot of people take vacation for it. Yoshi-P even acknowledged this. In all the time since Yoshi-P has done this, patch release days have been consistent and predicted years ahead of times, there has not been a prior expansion release date change and it was already delayed by a month or more, so the odds were in your favor, it just didn't work out that way this time unfortunately.

So why start now? Especially since he's aware that people take time off for his game? What can be worked on in two weeks, that can't be worked on after launch and hotfixed into the game afterward? What's so broken about the game that it demands a reschedule?

And if something is that broken that the expansion couldn't possibly launch without these certain things being worked on, why are they just now getting around to it? How is it that they didn't know the expansion wasn't going to be ready until just now?

[Mimiru_S]

Luckily I was able to push back my time off. My biggest disappointment, right now, is that Endwalker's release won't be on the date of the full moon.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

So why start now? Especially since he's aware that people take time off for his game? What can be worked on in two weeks, that can't be worked on after launch and hotfixed into the game afterward? What's so broken about the game that it demands a reschedule?

And if something is that broken that the expansion couldn't possibly launch without these certain things being worked on, why are they just now getting around to it? How is it that they didn't know the expansion wasn't going to be ready until just now?

I mean, you could read his post on why it was delayed.

He wanted to make sure personally that every lore tidbit over the past 11 years was tied up perfectly, which lead to a delay in QA. So the 2 weeks are just the needed QA time from the delay he caused by looking over everything.

As someone who has been around for the entirety of the game, I appreciate that dedication.

[nebby00]

I do agree with you to an extent, it does indeed suck that they pushed it back 2 weeks. However, it wasn't as if they wanted to; this expansion is going to be the largest one for the MMO so far, and they want to make sure it is acceptable to be playable by the playerbase. I'd much rather them take extra time to perfect any flaws now, rather than have a botched product be pushed through to their paying customers. That would make me more upset than a expansion being pushed back a little. Yes, it did unfortunately mess up people's schedules, and yes it is frustrating. But, that's just life. You gotta roll with the punches and adapt accordingly, if something doesn't line up the way you want, then yes, it's okay to be disappointed but you got to brush it off and keep moving.

Personally, due to college it lines up perfectly for me with this new release date on Dec 3rd early access since it's the last day for the semester for me. However, even if it hadn't lined up perfectly I still would have found the time to play, granted it probably wouldn't have been a lot but the game will still be there.

Take this opportunity for this month to catch up on things that you may have figured that you'd push off until EW, like leveling new jobs/crafters, or maybe even exploring side content that you haven't done yet. There's plenty of things to do in this extended downtime that you can put your time and energy to. Best of luck!

[Darkpaw]

You’re right this isn’t Square’s fault you took PTO off.

Yes it sucks that release was pushed back.

But ask yourself. Would any other game company in this position have the balls to come on stream and break down in tears apologizing? Or accepting responsibility? Or explaining exactly why they delayed? And how it came from a place of absolute love and devotion for this game and world. How he wanted everything even the most minute details to be perfect for all of us?

No. No other company would do any of this.

Maybe be upset at the employers who wont let you readjust your time off requests. It’s completely okay to feel frustrated and upset but this delay in no means comes from a place of wanting to disrespect the players

It comes from a place of the utmost respect and love for the players.

Lets be real clear also. When it comes to any kind of development. Not every issue can be predicted months in advance. Sometimes things happen at the last possible second. Doing those last second checks that you and a dozen others may have missed hundreds of times before that have to be corrected. So.. its not actually feasible to expect that developers have some mutant ability that gives them flawless future sight. Reality is often disappointing you adapt and overcome