Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail pre-orders have gone live to absolute chaos due to the upcoming expansion’s popularity, with players reporting issues across Square Enix’s online store and the MMORPGs socials inundated with talk of delays to pre-order bonuses, Steam key issues, and more. The dust appears to have settled for now, but if Endwalker’s launch problems were any indication, Dawntrail is going to be massive.
Now that the Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail release date is finally set, it’s time for us to get ready to jump back into the MMORPG, and Square Enix has started to get everyone prepared by opening pre-orders for both the Standard and Collector’s Editions. Problem is, it’s been anything but plain sailing in Final Fantasy 14.
Let’s start with Square Enix’s own communication on Dawntrail pre-orders. Over the course of an afternoon the team addressed problems with card payments, Steam codes not being sent out, and delays in pre-order bonuses because the quantity of rewards being sent out was so high.
“We are aware of a number of concerns regarding failed card payments when attempting to secure your pre-order on the Square Enix Store,” Square said before resolving the issue, only for another problem with logged in Square accounts to rear its head. This got so bad that it was recommended you purchase a Collector’s Edition with a guest account instead.
That wasn’t all, though. Problems arose with Steam, which in some cases would not grant registration codes. “We are seeing reports of Steam purchases not granting the Dawntrail registration codes to the Steam CD keys section as intended,” Square said, before outlining how players could find these codes in the CD keys section of Steam.
If you got a Dawntrail pre-order for the free bonuses – a wind-up Zidane minion from FF9 and an earring that gives you an experience boost to level 90 – Square issues a statement about how the sheer volume of orders meant it could take hours for you to get your rewards. “Rest assured, codes are being delivered sequentially, but the email may take up to several hours to arrive due to the high volume of orders,” the developer says.
It’s safe to say this had the whole FF14 community concerned, with the Square Enix store issues the subject of ridicule, memes, and fervent discussion. If you’re relatively new to Final Fantasy 14 like I am, these problems are just the beginning. I just got to the Heavensward expansion’s post game as I try to knock out the whole MSQ in a few months, and I’m dreading how busy Dawntrail will get.
When FF14’s last expansion Endwalker launched, Square Enix had to suspend digital sales of the entire game due to login times and server congestion, and even a week after launch the queues were incredibly long.
With the MMO achieving 30 million players worldwide earlier this year alongside the recent launch on Xbox, it’s possible some issues may return. At the same time, with cloud data centres and the ability to hop to different regional centres actively being tested, it might not be too bad.
If you can’t wait for Dawntrail but want to brush up on your Eorzea knowledge, we’ve got you covered with all the best Final Fantasy 14 classes, alongside some big new MMOs to keep you busy in the meantime.
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