GamerEscape

Producer & Director Naoki Yoshida announced tonight during the 67th Letter from the Producer Live that the release of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, the upcoming expansion pack, is being delayed by two weeks. The new release schedule is as follows:

Official Release: Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Start of Early Access: Friday, December 3, 2021

Patch 6.01 Scheduled Release: Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Patch 6.05 Scheduled Release: Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Shortly after the live announcement, Yoshida published a lengthy explanation, outlining the reasons for the delay and apologizing to the community. As explained, because Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is concluding the first major saga of FFXIV, Yoshida pushed the team hard to realize his vision. According to Yoshida:

As a result, we remained firmly resolved to adjust down to the smallest nuances and ensure our writing covers even the finest points of the vast and intricate story that has spanned these past 11 years since the original FFXIV to ensure that everyone can fully enjoy their adventure in Endwalker. 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.

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.

The full post can be read here.