Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker offers free game time to make up for lengthy queues over the weekend

Naoki Yoshida – producer and director of Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker – is offering seven free days of game time as an apology to fans who have spent the weekend sitting in long queues, trying to join a Final Fantasy 14 server.

Thanking players for their "understanding and cooperation thus far", Yoshida acknowledged that the server "congestion" started with the release of Endwalker in Early Access and offered a detailed explanation about why the congestion is happening, and how players can alleviate error messages and frustrating disconnections.

"Currently, all Worlds across all regions have been hitting the login cap for extremely long periods of time, and the progression of login queues is being slowed dramatically," he explained in a blog post. "Across the FFXIV service as a whole, the number of simultaneous logins has reached the hardware limit, and as a result, logging in has required an extremely long time, especially during 'peak hours' when we tend to see increased player activity. For this, I am truly sorry.

"Considering that we are asking players to wait in queues for extremely long periods of time and the ongoing situation making it difficult to play normally, we have decided that during the official release of Endwalker on December 7, we will be granting 7 days of free game time to all players who own the full version of the game and have an active subscription," he added. "This also includes players who are currently playing on the 30-day free play period included when registering the full version of the game and those with multiple accounts."

Yoshida didn't rule out giving away extra free game time over the next few days, either.

"Furthermore, we may give additional free game time depending on further developments on the congestion situation," he concluded. "The timing at which the free game time will be provided, as well as any additional extensions, will be announced at a later time. We truly appreciate your cooperation and patience regarding the congestion situation."

In need of a Final Fantasy 14 story recap? If you wish to refresh your memory with a brief FF14 story overview, we've got you covered. Here's everything that transpired from the start of A Realm Reborn to the finale of Shadowbringers. 

While you're sitting in the queues, check out our previous interview with director Yoshida, or our expansive Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker preview for standout moments of hours spent with the new expansion.

Final Fantasy 14 will do its best Animal Crossing impression with this great new feature in the Endwalker expansion.