Final Fantasy 14 Is Shutting Down Some Servers

Summary

Four Final Fantasy 14 servers in Europe will shut down on August 27, impacting Tycoon, Titania, Innocence, and Pixie.
The Shadow data center was created to ease congestion during Dawntrail's launch but will now be phased out after serving its purpose.
Players with characters on the Shadow servers will be automatically returned to their Home Worlds on the Light or Chaos data centers.

Final Fantasy 14 will be down four servers soon, as Square Enix confirmed that the Shadow data center in Europe will be shut down on August 27 following a maintenance period. The four Final Fantasy 14 servers that make up the Shadow data center, called Tycoon, Titania, Innocence, and Pixie, will no longer be available for players to visit starting August 15.

Before the release of the Dawntrail expansion, Final Fantasy 14 announced that the Shadow data center would be added as a way to alleviate congestion in the Chaos and Light data centers in Europe. The Shadow data center was classified as a "probationary" set of four overflow servers, meaning that players could only access it via Data Center Travel and could not create new characters or purchase housing on it. The Shadow data center was created after the launch of Endwalker was marred by long queue times and server capacity stretched to its limits. Hoping to avoid similar problems, Square Enix chose Europe as the territory that would host the probationary servers.

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Posts 1

By James Ratcliff

Now that the launch of Dawntrail has passed, Square Enix confirmed that the probationary data center served its purpose. Following a period of server maintenance, the Shadow data center will be shut down on Tuesday, August 27. Ergo, the servers called Titania, Innocence, Tycoon, and Pixie will no longer be available for play after that date. Starting on Thursday, August 15 at 11:00 PM Eastern, Data Center Travel to Shadow will no longer be available. The company said in a Lodestone post that Final Fantasy 14 players who have any characters on it will only be able to return to their Home World to keep playing. Square Enix did not say how long the aforementioned maintenance would take but asked players to use Data Center Travel to return to their home worlds beforehand to avoid any potential issues.

Which Final Fantasy 14 Servers Are Going Away?

The Shadow data center (Innocence, Pixie, Titania, Tycoon) will shut down on Tuesday, August 27.

Should any characters be left behind on any of Shadow's servers following the August 27 maintenance period, Square Enix reassured players they would be automatically returned to their home worlds on the Light or Chaos data centers. The shutdown of the Shadow data center will happen over two months after its launch, which took place weeks before Dawntrail's early access period. Following Shadow's shutdown, Final Fantasy 14 players in Europe will once again be down to 16 servers split evenly across the Chaos and Light data centers.

Although the Shadow data center will soon go away, Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail will still have plenty of content in future patches. Only time will tell if the probationary servers will return in future expansions.

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OpenCritic Reviews: Top Critic Avg: 86 /100 Critics Rec: 92%

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Released: August 27, 2013
ESRB: T for Teen: Alcohol Reference, Animated Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Developer(s): Square Enix
Publisher(s): Square Enix
Engine: Crystal Tools
Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play: PC, PS4, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S

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Begin your adventure in FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn
Create your very own Warrior of Light and embark upon a quest to deliver the land from an eternity of Darkness.
Take to the skies in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward
Take your first steps in the reclusive nation of Ishgard, locked in a seemingly never-ending struggle with dragons.
Rekindle the fires of hope in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood
Journey to the East and rise up against the might of the Garlean Empire.
Become the darkness in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers
Travel to a world where light ushers all unto oblivion. But hope is not yet lost, for where there is light there is shadow.
Journey to the very stars above in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker
A great calamity has been building - a second advent of the Final Days. The Warrior of Light must journey ever higher and stand firm as hope's last bastion.
Set forth for new horizons in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail
Blue seas, clear skies, and boundless possibilities await! Explore uncharted territories with familiar faces as hope's light dawns once more.

Cross Save: no
Franchise: Final Fantasy
Steam Deck Compatibility: yes
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Genre(s): MMORPG
PS Plus Availability: N/A

Boomingechoes

Boomingechoes

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But everything is going so great!

I mean, I get the reason these servers even existed at all, but really, and I'm not sure this is still the case cause I haven't logged in, in a few weeks, but on US servers we couldn't even make new Hrothgar women because of "server congestion" that didn't seem to actually exist, without any indication that anyone was being diverted away to spill off servers for a bit. Which is great cause, you know, give us a new thing and tell us we can't access it -unless, it seems, you used a fantasia; cause why not make more money off people?

But were also being told how super great the game is going, how many people are just clawing at the chance to play, when I logged in pretty fast every day from early access to 2 weeks after Dawntrails launch. Maybe had a queue of 30 people, max. Now they're doing this.

It just makes me think SE is lying about how well everything is going for the game, at least player-wise. Which isn't a huge surprise, cause it's pretty easy to suspect they're gaslighting us about how the game isn't hard, too

2024-08-10 13:20:10
River

River

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A period of server congestion that prevents the creation of a character means that Square Enix has decided that too many characters are on that server as opposed to others. Currently the entire main raiding data center for NA, Aether, is congested meaning no new characters may be created om that server. Instead you may try a data center that isn't congested such as Crystal, Dynamis, or Primal. The official source of news for FFXIV, the Lodestone, has a section to check what the status of each of the servers are. As of Patch 7.05 for the Crystal Data Center, the servers Goblin, Malboro, Mateus, and Zalera are open for new characters.
Additionally Square Enix never routed players away from their selected servers without a player choosing to be routed to another server.
Should come back sometime, games pretty fun and all the features are working perfectly right now :D

2024-08-10 14:27:23