Square Enix have announced Patch 5.3 for Final Fantasy XIV will be delayed, due to the coronavirus.
Speaking on the Final Fantasy XIV blog, Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida explained that patch 5.25 was narrowly completed. However, remote working, self-isolation, and other precautions undertaken to counteract the coronavirus had a negative effect on developing the next patch.
“FFXIV relies heavily on our development and QA partners across the world, and at this point, we must accept that the situation will significantly impact our development schedule. The reasons for this are:
- Delayed delivery of graphical assets due to the lockdown of cities in East Asia, North America, and Europe.
- Delayed voice recording due to the lockdown of cities in Europe.
- Delays to development tasks performed by Tokyo staff due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations.
- Production and QA teams operating well below normal capacity due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations.”
While that patch was originally scheduled for mid-June, Yoshida explains “we are at this time undecided as to whether it will be feasible to limit the delay to two or three weeks, or if it will be closer to a month.”
In addition to confirming staff are engaging in remote working, Yoshida expressed his deepest apologies, but not at the expense of his team.
“We are terribly sorry for the disappointment this may cause our players, as we know you look forward to new patches. However, it is also important to prioritize the physical and mental health of our development team, without whom we would never be able to release the quality updates and features you expect from FFXIV, so we ask for your understanding as we adjust our schedule in accordance with the situation.”
In late March, Square Enix also confirmed they would temporarily suspend “automatic house demolition.“ Player housing is typically revoked after not being access for 45 days, and the plot returns to sale. All items within the former home are put into storage for that player, however.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
This includes the postponement of GDC, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with the cancellation of E3 2020 (including digital events), and Comiket 98.
We also recently reported on Japanese ratings board CERO suspending operations during the state of emergency in Japan.
Square Enix had also tried their best to work around the virus. While they initially announced that some may not get Final Fantasy VII Remake on release day, they later stated some would get the game “much earlier“ in Europe and Australia.
However, one of their staff at their Tokyo headquarters caught the virus. The employee in question is currently undergoing medical treatment at home, under the guidance of a doctor.
The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 1.771 million total confirmed cases worldwide, and over 1.261 million active cases. There have been over 108,000 deaths, however over 402,000 people have made a “total recovery.”
Japan has had a total of 6,005 cases (5,144 active cases), 99 deaths, and 762 recoveries.
Final Fantasy XIV is out now on Windows PC, (via the SE Store, and Steam), PlayStation 4, and coming soon to Xbox One. In case you missed it, you can find our Shadowbringers expansion review here (we can’t recommend it enough!)
Image: Final Fantasy XIV official website.
