FINAL FANTASY XIV Online News

Final Fantasy XIV fixed on Steam Deck with Proton Experimental update

The Steam Deck only had a few weeks of getting to know Final Fantasy XIV before the latter’s 6.08 update wrenched them apart. In less undeservedly romantic terms, it was the MMO’s newly added launcher that – unlike the rest of the game – didn’t work well at all with the Deck’s Proton compatibility software. Two months later, however, Valve have released an update on Proton’s experimental branch that fixes the launcher, making FFXIV playable on the handheld PC once again.

Final Fantasy 14's now iconic producer Naoki Yoshida has recently detailed how his first game ended up getting cancelled.

Not every game is going to see the light of day, and it turns out that that was the case for Yoshida's first title he was working on at Square Enix. All the young readers might not be aware of this, but back in the day, Square and Enix used to be two separate companies. And now, speaking with We Are Vana'diel, Yoshida spoke of how the 2003 merger between the two eventually led to the cancellation of the first title he worked on at the joined company (thanks, Kotaku).

At the time, Yoshida was working as an outside developer on an online PC title at Enix, prior to the merger. However, things started to change once the merger took place. "As a result, we were told the game might not stay PC-exclusive, and sure enough, after the merger actually took place, we were told to rework it for the PlayStation 2," Yoshida told Akihiko Matsui, producer of Final Fantasy XI.

A month after Square Enix shut down the ability for players to buy houses in its MMO game, producer Yoshi-P has finally confirmed the Final Fantasy XIV Housing Lottery return date for later this month - with maintenance and testing kicking off on Monday.

As of patch 6.1 with the Endwalker expansion, the Final Fantasy XIV team introduced a housing system for the Empyreum residential district. This is governed by a lottery system where players get randomly chosen for a plot of land, which worked well - until it didn't, choosing the winning number of zero despite no players being able to select it.

In a new update, producer Naoki Yoshida confirms that the team has finally "completed preparations to implement our fixes and restore lottery data". The team will conduct maintenance to restore the correct lottery results this Monday, May 16, and any "temporary suspensions" on buying plot purchases and relocations will be lifted. Winners will have until the next lottery cycle to claim their plots of land, and even if their ticket was refunded they'll still be able to finalise the purchase - although Yoshida asks that players kindly return their refunded deposit voluntarily.

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Regarding Third-party Tools

Hello, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV.

With the release of Patch 6.11 and Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate), we’ve heard concerns from players about the use of third-party tools and the potential for game server emulation. I’ve touched on these topics previously in LIVE Letters, but I would like to take this opportunity to formally address them.

Please note this will be a lengthy post containing difficult technical terminology, and may not be of interest to the average player. Moreover, this announcement is meant to be read in its entirety, so I ask that you please refrain from sharing excerpts of this text out of context.

Read the full statement on the Lodestone.

Final Fantasy 14's director says that the next expansion's story is already underway

Director of Final Fantasy 14 Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that progress is already underway on the story for the next expansion.

Last year, Final Fantasy 14 finally wrapped up the story it's been building towards since its relaunch in 2013 with the expansion Endwalker. The story has been developing for almost a whole decade, with four expansions and many patches slowly telling the grand adventure set in Hydaelyn. But according to an interview with NME, Yoshida has already started planning for 7.0, the next expansion.

"The plot for the main scenario in the Patch 6.X series has already been completed and we've decided on its conclusion. Currently, script-related work for several patches and work on the detailed plot are underway. In fact, on my end, I'm already deciding on what I envision for 7.0," said Yoshida in the interview.