Final Fantasy XIV devs foreshadow the biggest issue looming over Dawntrail launch

The excitement of another Final Fantasy XIV expansion has the community on the edge of its seats as we’re less than two weeks away from the arrival of Dawntrail. But before this launch, the game’s developer addressed some looming issues that could occur for weeks following the launch: login queues.

The Final Fantasy XIV team has thoroughly explained how they plan to address these issues in an official statement. They were a significant problem when the previous expansion, Endwalker, was released in December 2021, and the issues continued throughout early 2022. The issues were so bad that at one point, Final Fantasy XIV was unavailable to purchase from multiple storefronts as new players could not log into the game. The team and the community are hopeful these problems won’t be nearly as bad for Dawntrail.

The team shared that if players enter a login queue when attempting to access their Final Fantasy XIV world and they don’t see the queue counting down, it should still be working. The game will allow people to enter the game based on where they are within the queue. If anyone leaves the queue, they are placed in the back of the line and must start the process again.

There will also be restrictions on Data Center Travel and World Visit Systems to help with the overall predicted congestion. The Japanese, North American, and European Data Centers will have heavy limitations, and the team recommends players prepare for these restrictions throughout Dawntrail’s launch.

However, if the servers on a player’s Home World are large enough, the team recommends players visit any Oceanian Data Centers. These Data Centers are the latest addition to Final Fantasy XIV and feature some of the smallest traffic from the community. Although the connection might be imperfect for some players, these are possible alternatives to ensure the community can log into the game if the login queues become difficult enough.

Even if Final Fantasy XIV players can get into the game during the expansion, there’s a good chance other issues could occur. For example, a player might not be able to move into a certain region and won’t be able to enter it because of congestion, or instanced content might be stalled so as not to overburden the servers.

Hopefully, Endwalker was a good lesson for the Final Fantasy XIV team and what they should expect. Still, even if the developer put every measure in place and prepared the servers to operate in peak condition, Final Fantasy XIV is a popular game that has only continued to grow. More players have made their way to the game recently, and Dawntrail could be the most significant expansion yet. Fingers crossed it’s not a rocky launch.