Square Enix has delayed Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion by two weeks. The new slice of content was initially due to release on November 23, 2021, but will now be available on December 7. If you have early access, you can jump in on December 3.
In a blog post on the MMORPG’s website, producer Naoki Yoshida explains that releasing Endwalker on time was always going to come down “right to the wire”. He also points to the dual nature of his role, as he oversees the project as the producer while being the director in charge of development. In the end, Yoshida thought the expansion could be better, and making those improvements ate into the time the team would have been using to make sure Endwalker was stable enough to run for players.
“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,” he says. “As we also anticipate large amounts of congestion across all game worlds, I felt that even in this respect it wouldn’t be right for us to release the expansion while lacking adequate stability. I am truly sorry.”
Looking forward, though, Yoshida explains that he believes the team has been able to “successfully depict Endwalker’s story” because the team set forth on this “long journey developing and operating FFXIV together with the players”.
Yoshida also confirmed that the team would release patch 601 and 6.05 on December 21 and January 4, respectively, due to the release date shift.
While the FFXIV Endwalker release date has been delayed, we’ve got plenty of other details to tide us over. The developers went over PvP updates, crafting and gathering adjustments, housing changes, and even fishing during a recent Letter from the Producer stream, which you can catch above.