My 2 cents on queues

[Blud3y3z]

You voice your complaints anyway you see fit. Delaying EW would have been the right thing to do, but who knows how long they could've ensured a stable release. Current issues have no end in sight. We could be dealing with problems well into the new year.

[Shialan]

Do you guys even read what you write? You are crying and throwing tantrums because you can't play something you paid for and then you want them to delay it even further? Basically meaning you would still not being able to play what you paid for?

[Yahallo]

From the forums there are 2 sets of people who are standing out.
1 - People who defend Square/Enix no matter what
2 - People who are mad at the current queue times

Honestly I don't really get group 1. Square/Enix is multibillion dollar company. They saw the influx of players earlier this year, they saw the preorder numbers and yet released the game when they knew the servers couldn't handle it. Yes they knew, because they even warned people of the potential queue issues prior to launch: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/30/...ded-wait-times

Yet they decided to go forward with this. This is just bad management. Also....

Remember they are a company, so bottom line is the main focus. My theory is that hey are probably hoping people will buy EW and hop off once they finish the story, therefore freeing up server space. This way they won't have to spend much on new servers or upgrades.

Yes they "gave" us 7 days, but we already bought the expansion. They already have our money. It's not unreasonable for a customer to want to use the product they bought, as it was intended. Since most of us have jobs, families and responsibilities, we do not have the luxury of waiting hours in a queue.

I would have rather they delayed the launch of EW, gave us a bit of content for SB and launched EW then they could offer more servers. At least I would be able to log in and play. ARR gave out a ton of regular content, well before Heavensward, so I know it's doable.

I really wish they would just roll back their servers to SB, apologize for this mess and then re release the expansion when they can handle it.

This is my rant. At least I offered a solution, but I know some people will defend Square/Enix, no matter what they do.

The main people defending SE simply understand how severe the chip shortage is. It isn't some mere slight reduction in supply, but quite literally a case where there is no supply for months at a time, especially with supply chains being screwed by the pandemic (thus adding another layer of complications). The influx of players in the summer was way too close to release and way beyond their predicted/projected numbers. A single world requires tens of sever machines and they like need hundreds of server machines with the amount of people trying to play. It's not a case of them not willing to pony up money; on the contrary, Yoshi P stated that even when they are willing to pay marked up prices, they still can't get servers in time. So this isn't a case of people just defending SE no matter what, but simply people understanding the situation at hand. I am defending FFXIV right now, but back in Stormblood I heavily criticized them for Raubahn EX. Also, they actually had been planning an Oceanic Datacenter that is currently scheduled to launch in February, so hopefully that will help take the stress off a bit.

As for delaying the game, that is likely a lot harder than you would think. A lot of content is probably developed well ahead of time and polished as it gets closer to release. Content isn't outright made during the few months before a release; I'd be amazed at that sort of speed if they did. They already had Endwalker finished by this point so they would either have to try to adapt Endwalker content as ShB content or just let the game stagnate for several more months if they choose to wait until they had server machines.By releasing it now and letting those players who do story then leave, more people get to play sooner and the game doesn't stagnate for months in a content drought. The fact that they gave a warning ahead of time should have made people consider whether or not their schedule was flexible enough to work around these queue times.

Furthermore, the announcement with the 7 day compensation also said that if the issues persist, additional compensation was a possibility. There is likely a lot of red tape to get through for additional compensation however.