The rebirth of Final Fantasy XIV is live, and you can read all about it in our A Realm Reborn review.
If Final Fantasy XIV’s final beta phase could be considered a ‘stress test’, then it woke up on Saturday to discover it was late for its A-Levels with no coins for the bus. 150,000 players descended on Eorzea this weekend – the realm what’s being reborn – and necessitated the switching on of two extra servers in Japan.
GamingUnion report that 120,000 players were trampling through the Realm’s green fields together on Saturday, prompting the addition of the two new servers – named Typhon and, in what can only be interpreted as an homage to the early days of MMOs, Ultima.
Squeenix were so excited by all this that by Sunday they’d laid a claim to the record for the most-populated open beta ever, with 150,000 concurrent users. But either they’re referring only to the shallow annals of console betas, or they haven’t been paying attention – Dota 2’s beta more than doubled that total in May with almost 330,000 concurrent players to its name.
Interestingly enough, the flood of new players seems to have introduced a new teething problem to FFXIV. Game director Naoki Yoshida appealed to players to try out the MMO’s tankier options, the Marauder and the Gladiator, after noting an imbalance in class pickup.
Were you one of the 150,000 involved this weekend? If so, did you Maraud, or opt or something a little more exotic?