My concern about the server issues

[Ranaku]

You don't get it, it's covid once again. That's why no one in the world is getting servers and no games are being launched nor have been launched for the last 8 months. They said they would try and that's more than enough, as you can see by the smooth queues.

And you seem to forgot that before covid there were also launches and expansions! And it was the same! xD Strange right? Wonder why that is. Remember stormblood, there were semi conducters right and left at that time and no covid and still a companies priority isn't to upgrade hardware that won't be used in a month or two.

And that is the common practice for every game that needs servers to operate. Or do you really think they would do it now differently when they did the same all the previous expansions? That is...really naive...really naive.

[Kes13a]

This is something that needed addresses before covid.

why though? WoW was going strong, I am sure they had plans to address the Oceanic server for a while, but it has to fit in the budget. you dont buy a bunch of hardware for servers and have it just hanging out for a while.

WoWs implosion could not be predicted. I know a LOT of people on these forums seem to think that back in 202 they should have been able to see the meltdown and migration of WoW players to here, but for most of us normal people, that wasnt a given. business decisions are not made on "well, I think this is the year WoW has problems so lets budget heavily on that". business people prefer facts... not 6 month out pipe dreams and unicorns

shortages happen, supply chain issues happen, and countries close their borders for unnessecary travel happens.setting up servers ticks all those boxes unless you are in the US and buy a lot of hardware constantly, even then, you are now feeling it

[IdowhatIwant]

Because it was an issue then, and since it was not addressed then it has become a larger issue now. That is what happens when you ignore problems, they get worst. And this is not the first WoW exodus, just the largest.

[Moonlite]

The reason is they literally cannot.
There is a massive semiconductor shortage among other huge supply-chain and labor issues. They really just cannot get more servers.

I have no idea about the technology, so I don't know if there is even a possibility for them to go through amazon's server... thingy, that a lot of games use, but I do know they don't have a secret "make it work" button they're not using.

Weak argument. You do know they were able to acquire and are sitting on a whole unused data centre right now? Someone at SE did not believe in the growth potential and they waited to order more hardware. Now the some players circle up and shout down anyone who questions why they haven't had a hardware increase.

why though? WoW was going strong, I am sure they had plans to address the Oceanic server for a while, but it has to fit in the budget. you dont buy a bunch of hardware for servers and have it just hanging out for a while.

You believe they did not believe in 14s growth potential?

[Kes13a]

You believe they did not believe in 14s growth potential?

growth potential yes.

explosive growth potential over a 2 month period because WoW imploded no. up until that time FFxiv enjoyed a slow and steady growth, not many companies have a factor for double digit percentage growth in a 2 month period.

[Laisera]

So you are saying that no company anywhere on the globe has managed to acquire servers in the last 18 months. Like there aren't even any to rent?

Or maybe its just that Squeenix are to cheap to pay the inflated costs of the shortage

Actually that's somewhat accurate. Most of the world moved to "Just in time" shipping and fabrication, so completed products such as Servers or PCs (and even intermediate products such as GPUs) aren't built and kept in storage for indeterminate amounts of time until someone buys them. Warehouse space costs money after all.

Instead, these things are made as needed for orders placed. This works all well and good and fine when the shipping and fabrication infrastructure of the world is stable and healthy, the supply chain flows and parts get where they need when they need. However when the supply chain is disrupted by anything, such as a global pandemic or a natural disaster, the entire system falls apart.

If you've ever taken a flight somewhere and seen delays across an airport, think of it kinda like that. Flight A is delayed, because Flight A's plane was going to be used for Flight B then Flight B has to be delayed. Flight B carries something that *needs* to be on Flight C (mail, a VIP passenger etc), so Flight C gets delayed. And so on and so forth down the system. Delays or disruptions anywhere in the system affect huge portions of the system.

So no one stores built and unused servers in a warehouse somewhere anymore, and the supply chain to get the parts to build new servers is disrupted to hell. Which results in huge delays getting servers or computers. Even end users are affected by this, if you've bought a computer in the last 6 months you've almost certainly had the fabrication and shipping delayed because of the same problems (I had a tower I bought back in July not end up getting shipped until October, simply because you couldn't get the parts). Square Enix isn't immune to these issues just because they're a global corporation, if anything they're more susceptible to them! Especially because this is an issue of hardware, and Square Enix is a software company. They do not (and should not) stockpile hardware beyond their immediate needs.


That being said, some of these launch issues would still be present even if the supply chain wasn't bent and battered to all hell. There would still be queues, and crashes and issues. They would just have been less severe. Keep in mind that this is an unprecedented launch (far more concurrent connection attempts than the system has ever faced before) in the middle of an unprecedented supply chain crisis. But I won't sit here and pretend this would have miraculously been the smoothest launch experience ever in the history of MMOs if the supply chain crisis wasn't a thing. It would have been smoother, absolutely, but there would still be rough patches.