To everyone complaining about not being able to get into the game...

[Sclair0]

You know what would happen if they removed the restrictions? The servers would go haywire, and then NO ONE would play, just like BEFORE they implemented the restrictions.

I think the amount and severity of the backlash has been too much, and I do agree that if the queues are causing people legitimate stress they should try to find other things to chill with while waiting

But I think it's a mischaracterisation to say the people complaining are asking for restrictions to be removed or new servers to be bought overnight. People do grasp these technical limitations (At least to a certain extent), and most are commenting that more should have been done pre-emptively rather than expecting massive fixes now.

I also disagree a bit on the "The game will be there and money isn't wasted" bit. Its definitely true that the game will be there in future, but when and how you can play a game definitely factors into it's value as entertainment. The story will always be as good, but if you pre ordered under the promise you'd be able to play at 'early' access then you didn't receive what you pre-ordered.

Now to me, Square giving out free playtime more than makes up for these issues, and Im really content to spend my time with other games as I wait. But I think the community go a bit far in picking faction-like sides when it comes to issues like this. Its possible to both sympathise with the causes of the problem on the company side of things while also realising it is a legitimate issue that consumers didn't get the thing they were marketed.

That all said I think most of this drama will die into memes by friday.

[Shori]

OP saying they couldnt anticipate the popularity is lazy thinking. They have a whole marketing team, some of whom should easily be able to track popularity in MANY ways such as streamer engagement (which we know they do), pre-order numbers, and the general increase in player count over the past year. EU were already experiencing queues both peak and off peak BEFORE endwalker dropped. In marketing campaigns they boast about how many registered users there are, a massive 400% on the number we had in Heavenward yet where are the servers??? SE just wont pay the price of the server hardware upgrades which is a huge insult given how many subscriptions are landing in their pockets.

[Sclair0]

EU were already experiencing queues both peak and off peak BEFORE endwalker dropped.

I second this point. I'm very on Squares side when it comes to the semiconductor shortage (clearly if a company like Sony cant get chips then Square cant atm), but EU has had issues for years even outside of expansion launches, and this wont be the last time this comes up. In future they really need to look into working on the European infrastructure when things smooth over a bit.

[Mango2020]

great let them leave less que times

[Jin-]

They will never going to be replying to you guys since they have been gone for over 8 years

[xbahax92]

People forget that the login times will drop by a week significantly. Sure its hella annoying to wait for hours to play the game, even get dc'd while in the que. But purchasing more hardware or servers only for a week of full bustling servers - aint really worth it.

[Darkobra]

the problem is... the game is soon to be way LESS popular than they expected, due to people not being willing to put up with this shit.

peole just arent going to stick around if they cant log in. plain and simple.

Bye. See you in a week.

[Havelocke]

I just want to say this; You DO realize that this problem is a result of an overwhelming number of people trying to play, right? That the game is just WAY more popular than they expected? You can't increase server capacity overnight, have a little patience. It's only been a week since official launch, and they're implementing the first big fix on it tomorrow.
No need to get riled up just because you can't play right now.

You know what would happen if they removed the restrictions? The servers would go haywire, and then NO ONE would play, just like BEFORE they implemented the restrictions.

So please, calm down, take a deep breath, find some other hobby while you wait. It isn't the end of the world, and your money isn't wasted. The game will be there and ready when the fixes are done.

Thank you.

I don't think this is fair at all.

Firstly, when I am able to log into and play the game, I'm loving all the hard work that's gone into this expansion. The team should be really proud of the game that they've been able to create and I am absolutely loving the story.

That being said, I am not enjoying the queues and I think that its ok to be critical of that and the response that we've gotten so far. Clearly, a lot of people pre-ordered this game with the hope of being able to play it early - and it was nice to see that we will be getting a minimum of 7 days play time as compensation - but Square did know how many people were pre ordering and they do know the total number of people that can be on the game at any one time. Now its great that the game is popular, but its not great if that popularity is destroying the quality of the gaming experience, and having 2, 3 or more hour queues is doing that. The hard work of the development team is being let down I think by the large queues and I worry that even a compelling story wont dispel all of the frustration that those queues generate.

Also, it is fair to point out that copies of Endwalker are still on sale and if you're continuing to sell an oversubscribed game without having any further infrastructure plans - then I think the players should be able to be critical of that decision?

[SamsaraTrickstar]

I just want to say this; You DO realize that this problem is a result of an overwhelming number of people trying to play, right? That the game is just WAY more popular than they expected? You can't increase server capacity overnight, have a little patience. It's only been a week since official launch, and they're implementing the first big fix on it tomorrow.
No need to get riled up just because you can't play right now.

You know what would happen if they removed the restrictions? The servers would go haywire, and then NO ONE would play, just like BEFORE they implemented the restrictions.

So please, calm down, take a deep breath, find some other hobby while you wait. It isn't the end of the world, and your money isn't wasted. The game will be there and ready when the fixes are done.

Thank you.

You almost correct. It just that 5he game was getting more players the past year. Then WOW,new world and NGS floped. 2 of this was openly stayed by all was played up to end walker. Ff14 have lof in wait rim for the past half year at last. So what did SE did not expected here? The shortages? This was going for the past 3 years so good time to upgrade if they really wanted.what more getting new servers is easy even now(know first hand). So stop defending a corporation it's not going to love you in return.

[Saefinn]

No. The problem is a failure to prepare for the capacity of people who want to play. You're trying to avoid placing the blame squarely where it belongs.

Square-Enix was not prepared.

The game is awesome. It plays incredibly well, a much more finished product than any other mmo I've played at launch. There's no glitchy pathing, holes in the world, bugged quests/mobs - that's a testament to the production team and QA.

However - they have completely failed on the back end. Duty servers & Realm servers not capable of the load. Login servers not capable of handling a queue - You're 142 in line.... you're 135 in line... world full (or connection to server lost)

Their account management systems have been a nightmare - multiple account creation pages - from the actual SE site, to the SE Store Site, to the Forums to the mogstation - codes and email delays -

This isn't the customer's doing. You can't write this off as a result of their product being too popular.

It's simply a failure in preparation.

All of the problems you've listed there aside from the account management system with multiple account creation pages are all server congestion related problems. As you rightly say, they're not capable of handling the load. Normally the way to deal with that is to spread the load across more servers. However, that's the one thing they cannot do. Spread the load across more servers. They've not been able to procure more servers due to the global semiconductor shortage that's impacted many electronics manufacturers.

Where the blame belongs is on that issue.

I'm not sure what better solution there is that doesn't exclude people from playing the game. Sadly, it's not as if they can use use "any old server" either as I expect there are certain specifications they need to work to for stability and compatibility.

If people have a better solution, then for sure, I'm game for them posting them and making something constructive out of this. But this really seems to be the crux of the issue and why people can't get in.