GamesRPGFinal FantasyFinal Fantasy 14Damn Yoshi-P wasn’t lying, Final Fantasy 14’s servers really are beefed up and Dawntrail-readyWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

GamesRPGFinal FantasyFinal Fantasy 14Damn Yoshi-P wasn’t lying, Final Fantasy 14’s servers really are beefed up and Dawntrail-readyWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

A Viera Warrior of Light.

Despite Naoki Yoshida’s assurance to me—and no doubt countless other journalist and content creators during the Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail media tour—that servers were jacked and ready to tackle the horde of playerscoming in at launch, I was admittedly still apprehensive.

Flashbacks to Endwalker’s queues that would consume my entire evening, pleading with my housemates to waggle my mouse while I nipped to the shops so my character wouldn’t succumb to the 30-minute AFK timer and thus initiate the four-hour wait all over again. Getting oh-so-close to finally playing, only to get the dreaded Error 90002 and realise that maybe the universe doesn’t want you to run dungeons tonight. Anyone who lived through it—or some lesser yet equally painful issues like Stormblood’s affectionately dubbed Raubhan (Savage)—will remember how much of a massive pain in the arse it was.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

A group of NPCs cheer on as a boat sets sail.

Yet 10 minutes later with zero fuss and there I was, stood outside my house and ready for adventure. Only 10 minutes! This would have been a far-fetched dream two-and-a-half years ago. The process has been significantly smoother this time around, and it seems like I’m not the only one. Fellow PC Gamer writer and Final Fantasy 14 enjoyer Harvey Randall had around 700 people in the queue and took around five minutes to log in over on NA servers, while a couple of my friends in Europe shot through queues of around 2,500 in around 15 - 20 minutes.

I have seen some folk claiming—either jokingly or with a twinge of seriousness—that it’s because people aren’t fussed about the expansion. It’s worth remembering what Yoshida said about launch queues during the media tour: that smoother queues aren’t an indictment on the game’s popularity, but moreso a good sign that the team has done its job right. “‘Well, there isn’t that congestion, so it must mean that people have dropped out of Final Fantasy 14 right?’ Well, I would really appreciate it if you could inform those types of people that it’s just down to the fact that we have been putting in a lot of effort and a lot of preparation to help our players.”

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Alisaie, a side character in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, folds her arms with a confident smirk on her face.

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