Don't Fall For It

[Rookie1]

it's not just the parts that covid has affected. it's the lockdowns. as yoshi said...they can't get their server engineers out to the datacenters to set up new servers. I imagine same reason they don't use third party hosting like amazon or google servers. they like to be self sufficient and probably want to protect whatever trade secrets they have.
also it allows them to conduct their maintenance on their own schedule. other games that rely on third parties or whatever have to do regional launches of patches and staggered downtime based on the region's clock

[Wildsprite]

I find blaming the launch issues on semiconductor shortage and COVID insulting at best.

This exp has been planned since well before the world fell apart. Once hardware started becoming a problem SE had more than enough time to acquire it and get it up and running before this launch.

They are using it as an excuse and nothing more. My guess is that there was a financial decision made not to add servers dues to cost. *which, yes, may be due to current world issues* And this is fine. I accept the reality of that business decision... What I struggle to accept is twisting it into this "oh poor us, we can't find hardware"

The auto industry is suffering because of the sheer volume of chips they need. SE only required a fraction of that to add servers.

There's nothing that can be done about it. It is what it is and I accept that. It just really upsets me that we are being fed, what I believe, to be a false narrative as an explanation.

Thank you for listening to my rambling TED Talk as I wait in queue.

They are already prepared for over capacity as it is. Why should they add more server clusters for something that won't even last a whole month? This issue will level itself out within the first 2 weeks. If it doesn't they will add more server clusters but that takes time.

[Doki]

Maybe they should partner with AWS or Azure or something...

[IdowhatIwant]

Here's the thing. This problem could have been avoided if they has added the servers a while ago. It is essentially stupid IMO to not continually add additional servers to a game that has had steady growth since 2.0. It was also very stupid to not add additional servers when they actually sold out of keys after announcing endwalker. How ever they failed to do this and there is nothing anyone can really do about it. So we all suffer together.

I mostly feel bad for people that purchased FFXIV for the first time and are unable to create a character. SE will lose business because of this mistake. Long term they likely do not care as it is not going to be enough business to affect them financially.

[Sclair0]

Here's the thing. This problem could have been avoided if they has added the servers a while ago. It is essentially stupid IMO to not continually add additional servers to a game that has had steady growth since 2.0. It was also very stupid to not add additional servers when they actually sold out of keys after announcing endwalker. How ever they failed to do this and there is nothing anyone can really do about it. So we all suffer together.

I mostly feel bad for people that purchased FFXIV for the first time and are unable to create a character. SE will lose business because of this mistake. Long term they likely do not care as it is not going to be enough business to affect them financially.

To note on the adding additional servers, whether or not you believe them on the semiconductor issues the global semiconductor shortage has been going on since September 2020. So if they are being truthful it's likely getting the resources would have been difficult during June when they were at capacity.

[Hasrat]

Here's the thing. This problem could have been avoided if they has added the servers a while ago.

What do you think they were doing with adding an entire OCE data center? These things take a lot of time and planning. By their old projections, the new data center would've alleviated a lot of congestion (yes, primarily for JP/NA data centers) and this shouldn't have been a problem.

What they couldn't have predicted is EU player population literally doubling in that time. Nothing about EU's "steady growth since 2.0" could have suggested they need more servers again. Again, as they've gotten increased capacity twice since I've been playing, and for a long while players complained about being spread too thin.

Consider, plans were already underway for the OCE data center, and very likely their roadmap already included more servers elsewhere afterward. Things take time. Upgrades are on the list. But, they've experienced some understandable setbacks. What else were they supposed to do when getting approval for new servers and getting them online can take months to over a year even under normal circumstances? Not exactly something they can say "we need new hardware fast, someone go down to the store and get some." Approval, planning, acquisition, inspections, implementation. It's not a fast process. And they were already in the middle of adding one set, seems pretty unlikely they weren't already in the early stages of adding more.

[Sclair0]

I definitely believe them on the semiconductor shortage, its effected multiple businesses with a lot more resources than Square (Sony being the obvious one) so I do genuinely believe they wanted to add more servers but couldn't.

I do think whenever a business tells consumers "We did everything" we should be sceptical though, because they really mean "We looked at profits and decided we had done as much as was cost effective." and as much as I like Square, and especially the dev team, I think we should look at their business decisions with the same scepticism as game companies with much worse reputations.

[Krotoan]

I definitely believe them on the semiconductor shortage, its effected multiple businesses with a lot more resources than Square (Sony being the obvious one) so I do genuinely believe they wanted to add more servers but couldn't.

I do think whenever a business tells consumers "We did everything" we should be sceptical though, because they really mean "We looked at profits and decided we had done as much as was cost effective." and as much as I like Square, and especially the dev team, I think we should look at their business decisions with the same scepticism as game companies with much worse reputations.

Do you expect the company to take a huge loss just to mitigate a launch rush? It would be nice for all the customers yes, but I'm trying to imagine how any director would explain that their department needs to put the company into the red so that people won't be inconvenienced for .. like 2 weeks. I remember in the releases they gave us they explained they pushed the boundaries of spending to try and get the things they needed and it still wasn't enough.

[Sclair0]

Do you expect the company to take a huge loss just to mitigate a launch rush? It would be nice for all the customers yes, but I'm trying to imagine how any director would explain that their department needs to put the company into the red so that people won't be inconvenienced for .. like 2 weeks. I remember in the releases they gave us they explained they pushed the boundaries of spending to try and get the things they needed and it still wasn't enough.

"Huge Loss" is the key term there. I can't tell you what I would consider reasonable or not without actually seeing the numbers. I wouldn't expect or want a business to bankrupt itself over a launch, but I very much doubt Square were even close to going into the red on the launch.

But to be clear Im not saying "RAGE THEY LIED TO US" Im just saying be sceptical when a company tells you how hard they tried, even when you like the company. Its good for consumers to demand more from businesses.

[Krotoan]

"Huge Loss" is the key term there. I can't tell you what I would consider reasonable or not without actually seeing the numbers. I wouldn't expect or want a business to bankrupt itself over a launch, but I very much doubt Square were even close to going into the red on the launch.

But to be clear Im not saying "RAGE THEY LIED TO US" Im just saying be sceptical when a company tells you how hard they tried, even when you like the company. Its good for consumers to demand more from businesses.

Bankrupt? Most definitely not. Give them a dip in profits with no appreciable recovery later? Probably.

I get that we, as the consumers, should be wary of companies as they're in it for the money and ultimately do not care for us, but given the team working on FFXIV and their proven passion and empathy for us the players, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt that unless he was lied to or deceived, Yoshi P tried his dangdest to get those upgrades but was not able to.

As a customer I would of course want all of us to be able to play whenever we wish.. but as a realist I understand the company has no incentive to take such sacrifice for such a (in their eyes) brief benefit of goodwill.