Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker Expansion Suffers Short Delay
Final Fantasy XIV is one of the biggest MMOs in the world, and it has seen great success especially with the slow downfall of World of Warcraft amongst MMORPGs. Final Fantasy XIV has filled the void for many gamers looking in that niche as it offers a diverse world, excellent exploration and arguably the best PVE around. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is the game’s upcoming expansion that was originally set for release on Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021. However, the game’s release date has officially been delayed until December 7th, 2021, with the expansion entering Early Access on December 3rd, 2021.
Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of Final Fantasy XIV, announces the delay and the reasoning behind it in an official release. Yoshida commences by apologizing to the fans and taking the blame for the delay. He goes on to discuss the reasons for the delay and states, “However, it was precisely because Endwalker concludes the first major saga that I felt our team needed to push ourselves to the “limits” that I envisioned….Unfortunately, the consequence of this was that we ended up in a situation where we cut into the time required for final quality assurance checks due to this time spent on additional improvements.”
Yoshida goes on to state, “At this rate, there was a bigger risk of us reaching the release date without ensuring “stability” as one form of quality, and for that reason, I have decided to postpone the release at this time.” It appears that Yoshida, like many creative minds, has suffered from seeking perfection, which is admirable in the video game industry, but can lead to issues such as these, where finetuning is done to an unreachable point, resulting in delays.
Yoshida concludes by once again apologizing to fans for the short, two-week delay and assuring fans that the development team has been hard at work on the final product.
What are your thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV? What are your thoughts on the delay? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter and Facebook.