Gabe Newell is playing Final Fantasy XIV because he got tired of World of Warcraft, a new tidbit from the Valve boss’s talks around Steam Deck’s launch.

“One of my sons got into Final Fantasy,” Newell said to IGN. “I sorta got burned out on World of Warcraft. It got to the point where they’d introduce a new level cap, and I’d be like ‘ah!’ and I’d start playing for about ten minutes and my brain would melt down.

He added, “So I haven’t played an MMO for a while, but one of my sons was into Final Fantasy. And he was mad at the people he’d go raiding with, so he was like ‘Okay, I need a minion, Dad, come be my minion. Be my healer who doesn’t let me die when I’m tanking.’ So I started playing with him, and then I’ve been playing a ton of it on the Deck.”

News that Gabe Newell is playing Final Fantasy XIV because of burnout with World of Warcraft makes sense as even notable players from Blizzard’s aged MMO like streamer Asmongold and others have moved onto Square’s popular MMO.

In related news – Blizzard recently announced cross-faction raids are coming to World of Warcraft, a first for the MMORPG since its launch years ago. Many are speculating the massive change is yet another attempt to rekindle interest in the game, as many have left for other MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV.

Square Enix is aggressively updating Final Fantasy XIV as well to keep up with demand, they just announced a big graphics update and their development roadmap for the next 10 years of the MMO.

Valve’s Steam Deck is now available, and in three flavors: $399 (64GB), $529 (256GB), and $649 (512GB), over on the Steam store.