Square Enix have announced a sale for MMO Final Fantasy XIV; with Shadowbringers and the Complete Edition being 60%.
While officially only announced for Japan via Twitter, the game also appears to be discounted in the US and Europe; despite no official announcement from Square Enix.
The official Square Enix store seemingly has no sale on in North America for the game, in Europe we see 60% off Final Fantasy XIV Complete Edition (containing all the expansions), and the Shadowbringers Collector’s Edition expansion. The Complete Edition on Mac is 54% off.
On the PlayStation Store, there is a 60% discount on the Complete Edition and Shadowbringers Collector’s Edition for North America [1, 2]. Europe also sees those discounts, along with the standard Shadowbringers expansion [1, 2, 3].
While the Japanese and European sale lasts until November 17th, the US sales on PlayStation 4 last until November 18th. No date was given for the Square Enix store sales.
Final Fantasy XIV has recently seen a surge in interest; being all attributed to one man despite other factors. The game recently broke its Steam concurrent players record with over 47,000; after World of Warcraft streamer Asmongold tried the game. As the game has a free trial, combined with the rising popularity of the game, other streamers sought to play it; creating a cycle.
Another factor is the alleged waning popularity of World of Warcraft. Activision Blizzard’s Q1 2021 financial report revealed that monthly active users in Blizzard Entertainment games had fallen to 27 million that fiscal quarter; a 29% drop over three years. These figures of course include games other than World of Warcraft.
Nonetheless, the poor reception to the latest expansion (Shadowlands) is further exacerbated by past controversies with Blizzard Entertainment, and the ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit. You can find our latest coverage here.
The recent flood of players saw Final Fantasy XIV briefly having to contend with the Western servers being full, and had to implement a waiting list for the digital Complete Edition. Despite this, Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida asked players not to restrain themselves to ease the servers. Among the recent new faces is Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series.
A second wave of new players may come, as Hololive English vtuber IRyS confirmed the group has been given permission to stream the game (preventing copyright strikes). Other details, such as which members will be streaming and when, was not revealed at this time.
It was announced this month that the game had hit 24 million registered players, and has become the most profitable Final Fantasy game. It should be noted this would also include players on the game’s free trial, playable up to level 60, and including the first expansion Heavensward.
Final Fantasy XIV is available for Windows PC, Mac (via the SE Store, and Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and still planned for Xbox One. In case you missed it, you can find our Shadowbringers expansion review here (we can’t recommend it enough!)
The Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker expansion launches November 23rd. In case you missed it, we covered all the changes coming with patch 6.0 when Endwalker launches.
Image: Final Fantasy XIV official website
