[GameSpot] - Final Fantasy 14 Players Are Getting Free Game Time To Make Up For Endwalker Issues

[343iBot]

All Final Fantasy XIV players who own the game's latest Endwalker expansion and have an active subscription will receive seven days of free game time in the wake of ongoing server issues, Square Enix has announced.

The game's servers have been slammed following the early access release of Endwalker on December 3, resulting in long login queues and error messages that are causing players to disconnect entirely. Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida apologized for the situation in an official post while outlining steps the team is taking to improve things ahead of Endwalker's official launch on December 7.

Part of making things right is offering free game time to players, which will be offered to players starting on December 7. Yoshida states that more free game time could come "depending on further developments" in regard to ongoing server congestion.

Yoshida goes on to outline peak player hours for various timezones in an effort to help players choose times in which they might more easily be able to log in and play. He also responds to player-complaints of being automatically logged out of the game after being AFK for 30 minutes during the credits of earlier Final Fantasy XIV expansions, for which he is "truly sorry." Yoshida states that players will not be logged out for inactivity during the end credits of Endwalker, but asks that players press buttons or click with the mouse during other end credit scenes to avoid being booted back to the main menu.

Square Enix did anticipate the game's current server woes. Last week the company apologized in advance for server issues ahead of Endwalker's early access launch, stating that the team had done everything in its power to optimize servers and increase capacity. Even with those upgrades in place, Square Enix stated that players would still very likely encounter long login queues and server errors, both of which have unfortunately come to pass.

Final Fantasy XIV's popularity has soared in recent months, breaking concurrent player records on Steam and leading Square Enix to restrict new character creation on certain high population data centers. The game's new Endwalker expansion raises the level cap from 80 to 90, as well as introduces two new jobs for players to master alongside new regions to explore and dungeons to conquer.

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