Endwalker, the much-anticipated Final Fantasy XIV expansion originally set for November of this year, has been delayed by two weeks, revealed during the latest Live Letter from the Producer stream from the FFXIV team. The new release date is now December 7, 2021, and early access players who preordered will still be able to play a bit earlier on December 3, 2021.
The update was originally “moving according to plan,” according to director and producer Naoki Yoshida. The reason he gave was, more or less, his own perfectionism that eventually led to delays in quality assurance on the game. Yoshida tearfully apologized on-stream for the team needing the extra time and cited other issues (like long queue times) that have harangued FFXIV since it’s seen a massive influx of players in recent months.
The decision was just made last Friday, so the turnaround seems to have been pretty quick. Endwalker itself is the culmination of the game’s original storyline as established in the original Final Fantasy XIV and its critically acclaimed reboot, A Realm Reborn, over nearly the last decade. Yoshida specifically talked about wanting to make sure most of the game’s loose story threads — even very small ones — were addressed in the narrative update before it went live. Given the scope of the game and even just this upcoming expansion, that seems understandable.
Post-launch plans were also revealed during the stream; Patch 6.01 will go live on December 21 and Patch 6.05 is set for January 4. Be sure to get more details on the Endwalker post-launch content. For more on the newly pushed December release, be sure to read the team’s official announcement.
