FFXIV director says Square Enix has learned from Endwalker’s botched launch ahead of Dawntrail

After Square Enix pushed back the release date for Endwalker, which disappointed Final Fantasy fans back in 2021, Final Fantasy XIVdirector Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida won’t reveal Dawntrail’s release date until the expansion is on track.

Although the FFXIV Endwalker expansion was only pushed back by two weeks, fans were beyond disappointed, but there was a good reason for the delay. It was revealed that Yoshi-P himself checked everything to ensure that the Endwalker expansion was perfect, which put a lot of pressure on him, his team, and Square Enix. This is one situation that the two wanted to avoid for the launch of the upcoming FFXIV expansion, Dawntrail.

During the Final Fantasy Fan Fest 2024 live stream on Jan. 6, Yoshi-P mentioned that he would not reveal the release date for Dawntrail until their schedule was on track, as reported by PC Gamer. 

Now, it’s not to say that they don’t have a release date yet; they do have one, but it’s for internal purposes according to Yoshi-P. This is the date the devs aim for, but if it’s impossible and the team needs to adjust it, they can and will do so without upsetting fans. Until everything is ironed out and on track, Square Enix and Yoshi-P won’t reveal when Dawntrail will be released.

However, before you despair at the lack of a release date, Yoshi-P hinted that it will loosely come sometime during Summer 2024. So, if all goes well, we should get the next expansion in the middle of the year. Best of all, Square Enix revealed a new trailer during the Fan Fest, where there will be playable women from the Hrothgar race and the new Pictomancer class. This class will use paintbrushes as weapons to create portraits that will attack the enemy.

While we’re all not-so-patiently waiting for the release date to be revealed, at least we know that as long as everything is on track, Dawntrail will be released in the summer.