Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker delayed to early December

Space whales will have to wait

One of the most highly anticipated November releases around the Destructoid “office” is Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker. Serving as the final chapter of the game’s current narrative and the start of something new, plenty of staff around the site are excited to see what Yoshi-P has in store. And we’re going to have to keep that excitement going for a little longer as an Endwalker delay was announced last night in a Letter from the Producer live stream on Twitch.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker will now release on December 7, with the start of Early Access beginning on December 3. The shift in schedule means some of the planned patches also have new release dates. Patch 6.0.1 will be available starting December 21, while Patch 6.0.5 will go up on January 4, 2022. In a blog post on the Final Fantasy XIV website, Yoshi-P explained the delay is due to him and his team fine-tuning the game to make it the best experience they could. Unfortunately, all those adjustments pushed into the time set aside for final quality assurance checks, with Yoshi-P writing:

At this rate, there was a bigger risk of us reaching the release date without ensuring “stability” as one form of quality, and for that reason, I have decided to postpone the release at this time. As we also anticipate large amounts of congestion across all game Worlds, I felt that even in this respect it wouldn’t be right for us to release the expansion while lacking adequate “stability.” I am truly sorry.

If there is one thing I’ve come to learn about the FFXIV fanbase since starting the game up myself a few years ago, it’s that they’re highly forgiving and appreciative of everything Yoshi-P and his staff have done to turn around this game from its near-disastrous debut. The Letter from the Producer stream touched on more than just the delay as many of Endwalkers features were detailed during it. You can watch the stream linked above to find out everything, or you can just hop onto the FFXIV Twitter account to get a good summary of everything talked about, including how Ishgard housing will work.

I am still a few expansions back from being where I need to be to play through Endwalker, but I’m really enjoying this journey toward its end. Hopefully, sometime in 2022, I’ll be able to catch up with the rest of the player base and experience everything fresh and new as it’s added to the game.