Final Fantasy XIV‘s new expansion, Endwalker, has been delayed–thankfully, the delay is only a couple of weeks. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida announced the delay over the weekend, saying he is “incredibly sorry” to have to push the release date so close to its launch.
Endwalker was previously scheduled to arrive on November 23, but it’s now coming two weeks later, on December 7. Early access will be available starting December 3 for some players.
Square Enix also announced that patch 6.01 is coming on December 21, with patch 6.05 slated to arrive on January 4, 2022. Additionally, the launch trailer is out now–watch it above.
Explaining the delay, Yoshida said, “The biggest factor behind the release date change was my own selfishness as the game’s director.” Endwalker is the largest expansion to date for Final Fantasy XIV, and Yoshida said his own personal desire to make it as good as possible led to the delay.
“As we neared the end of development and I played through everything–from quests to battle content and the like–I just couldn’t contain my desire to further improve Endwalker’s quality, specifically because this expansion pack marks the first major culmination of events in FFXIV so far,” he said. “Even as we look beyond Endwalker, the FFXIV story will continue for a long time and we hope to deliver many more enjoyable experiences in the game. However, it was precisely because Endwalker concludes the first major saga that I felt our team needed to push ourselves to the ‘limits’ that I envisioned.”
Yoshida said the team was focusing on making sure even the “smallest nuances” to the game’s plot and story, which date back 11 years, were handled appropriately and with care. “Unfortunately, the consequence of this was that we ended up in a situation where we cut into the time required for final quality assurance checks due to this time spent on additional improvements,” Yoshida said.
Due to this, and a desire to focus more on making sure the expansion is stable at launch, Yoshida decided to delay the game by two weeks.
“When I look at my own career, up until now I have never postponed a previously announced release date (although I did once shift a release from Spring to early Summer…) and, when I also considered that many players had already made arrangements such as taking days off work in preparation for the original release date, I was incredibly torn between whether or not we should cut down the expansion pack’s volume or even release content in installments,” Yoshida said.
“As such, I humbly ask you all to forgive me for the decision I’ve made,” he added.
Although it is not an ideal situation, Yoshida said the extra two weeks should allow the development team to have the time it needs to “successfully depict Endwalker’s story.”
Yoshida also discussed the delay during a livestream event, and he becomes visibly distraught when he announces the news of the delay at around 1:10:00.
Endwalker adds two new jobs–Sage and Reaper–as well as a new playable race, the male Viera. It also raises the level cap from 80 to 90 and adds new cities, including Old Sharlayan and Radz-at-Han. A new raid, Pandaemonium, is included with the expansion, too, along with new gear, new dungeons, and new enemies.
For more, check out GameSpot’s recent hands-on preview with Endwalker.
GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.
