Final Fantasy 14 suspends server restrictions following real-life earthquake
Square Enix has announced that it will be suspending restrictions surrounding player housing in Final Fantasy 14 after a major earthquake struck Japan on New Year's Day.
The 7.6 magnitude earthquake, which hit the Noto Peninsula of Japan, left thousands of people without electricity or shelter and, while the entire scale of the disaster remains unknown, it has been reported that at least 330 people are injured and 84 deceased.
Square Enix have previously made exceptions regarding in-game housing demolition when similar tragedies and other unexpected events could prevent players from accessing the game due to not having power, property damage or financial struggles.
Final Fantasy 14 has suspended automatic housing demolition on Japanese servers
Automatic housing demolition, which sees player’s homes removed from the game if they are not visited within 45 days, has been suspended in Final Fantasy 14 following a tragic earthquake which recently took place in Japan.
In a post titled “Temporary Suspension of Automatic Housing Demolition” Square Enix wrote: “From all of us on the FFXIV development and management team, our hearts go out to those who were affected by the massive earthquake that occurred in Noto Peninsula on January 1st, Monday.
“Due to the damages and other factors, we have decided to temporarily suspend the automatic demolition of estates.
“As for when auto-demolition will resume, we will monitor the situation in the coming days, and inform you all when we have come to a decision that auto-demolition can commence again.
“It is our sincere hope that recovery is swift, and those of you who were affected will be able to rejoin us in FFXIV soon.”
The post stated that automatic demolition would be restricted from Thursday 4 January from 3:23 PST (11:23 GMT).
It also confirmed that all of the worlds under the Elemental Data Centre, Gaia Data Centre, Mana Data Centre and the Meteor Data Centre would be affected by this suspension, which covers all of the Data Centres based in Japan.
Square Enix has previously made exceptions for the demolition rules following real-world tragedies
This is not the first time that Square Enix has decided to suspend automatic housing demolition based on real-world events which could affect player’s ability to log into the game.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the publisher decided to suspend the feature due to the economic impact which may not allow players to pay the game’s subscription costs.
A post written at the time stated: “Taking into account the world-wide spread of the COVID-19 (also known as “novel coronavirus”) and the economical effects of various cities going into lock-down, we have decided to temporarily suspend automatic housing demolition.”
Similarly, automatic housing demolition was paused for any players on the Chaos or Light Data Centres following the earthquake which struck Turkey and Syria in February last year.
