Update: At the end of the Final Fantasy 14 keynote livestream, game director Naoki Yoshida gave a proper release date: November 23, 2021. He acknowledged that this is a bit later than expected due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that the development team didn't want to compromise on features in order to release it early. We've updated the story below to reflect that.
Original Story: Everything is up in the air with the Covid-19 pandemic delaying games left and right, but Final Fantasy 14's next expansion is coming November 23, slightly behind it's regular schedule. The news was announced today during the Final Fantasy 14 digital fan fest, and while it might be disappointing that the expansion is arriving bit late, it was expected due its entire update schedule being delayed last year.
Unlike other MMOs, Final Fantasy 14 runs on a fairly strict schedule, with major patches dropping every 3ish months, but having to switch to working from home last year caused some minor delays. Previous FF14 expansions always launched during the summer, but those delays have understandably pushed things back a bit.
Along with the release date, Square Enix also premiered an extended CG trailer for the new expansion which, as always, was pretty damn awesome. You can watch the six minute trailer above. It doesn't reveal too many new details, but it's full of new locations and teases some major story developments.
Endwalker is going to be an extremely important expansion. It represents an end to the current story arc that has been ongoing since Final Fantasy 14 first launched as a deeply flawed MMO (and was then remade into a very good one). Not common to MMOs, this one will have a big, dramatic conclusion that marks an end to the current story—even though the MMO will live on. What comes next is still a big mystery, though.
We'll have more details on the expansion as they become available. Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker arrives November 23, 2021.
