Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 14 is doing really well, with a population that has exploded..and it’s caused some problems. Login queues have been an issue, and now players can not create new characters on worlds occupying the game’s most populated North American data center.
All worlds on the Aether data center are now classified as “congested,” which means they are actually full. Square Enix states it has already expanded the maximum world capacity a much as possible. If they expand any further, it would end with hours-long queues for players. Obviously, Square Enix wants to avoid this.
New players, or those looking to create a new character, will need to head to a world hosted on either the game’s Primal or Crystal North American data centers for now. Although, Square Enix warns those worlds are heavily populated as well.
Square Enix states it would like to expand its data centers and add new worlds, but its not that simple right now. The global shortage of semiconductors means the company is “still struggling” to get the equipment to make upgrades to the game’s infrastructure. COVID-19 restrictions in Japan also make it difficult to travel outside the country to implement server upgrades.
Some upgrades will be coming to European data centers, with a hotfix increasing world capacity in the region. Additional upgrades should be coming in September that will allow for even more players.
“Considering the current situation, we will likely require more time in implementing our large-scale solutions,” Square Enix writes in an official post on the Final Fantasy 14 website. “The circumstances surrounding our infrastructure are far from ideal, but I promise that we will continue to persevere in implementing any solutions we can!”
