With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to have a hold on numerous businesses and industries around the world, the games industry has seen several challenges in the wake of the pandemic. Development especially has been difficult for some studios with employees having to work from home and practice social distancing, leading to limitations on what can be done remotely for game development and maintenance. In light of these circumstances, Square Enix detailed some of the impacts that this is having on its long-running and popular MMORPG, Final Fantasy 14.
In a blog post from FF14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida, Square Enix detailed that the current state of the coronavirus pandemic will have some effects on the development of new updates and content for Final Fantasy 14. Specifically, Yoshida explained that as Japan is in a state of emergency as a result of the pandemic, the development of new updates that were originally scheduled for the game will end up being delayed.
An important message from Naoki Yoshida regarding the impact of COVID-19 on #FFXIV service and development.
https://t.co/KMIq6gW5aW pic.twitter.com/IChCu5hxGw
— FINAL FANTASY XIV (@FF_XIV_EN) April 10, 2020
Yoshida detailed that the most recent update, patch 5.25, was finishing development just before country-wide lockdown orders and was able to be released. However, Yoshida outlined that the biggest factors that will result in delays for future content are a result of delayed delivery of assets between Square’s development teams in East Asia, North America, and Europe, voice recording challenges, development tasks in Tokyo, and current limitations with production and QA teams in a working from home environment.
The upcoming patch 5.3 will likely be the first new update that will be delayed for Final Fantasy 14 as a result of the pandemic situation, which was originally planned to release in June. Likewise, Yoshida noted that it’s unclear at this time whether the delay will be for a few weeks, or “if it will be closer to a month.”
Yoshida expressed that the development team for Final Fantasy 14 is “terribly sorry for the disappointment this may cause our players,” but is aiming to “prioritize the physical and mental health of our development team” in the midst of the pandemic. At this time, the studio will adjust its production and development schedule “in accordance with the situation,” and that “each World will be running as usual, allowing everyone to continue playing,” as Final Fantasy 14‘s servers will be maintained remotely from the studio while working from home.
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