The official word from the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest convention is that the game's 4.0 expansion, entitled Stormblood, will be out next summer. As reported by USgamer, producer Naoki Yoshida said Stormblood will feature "a full, stand-alone game's worth of content" set in the city-state of Ala Mhigo, which is struggling to free itself from the grip of the Garlean Empire.
The expansion will add new jobs, "sprawling new areas" that will be at least as big as those of the Heavensward expansion, an increase in the level cap from 60 to 70, new Primal boss fights, dungeons, high-end raids, and a "revamped" battle system that that will group and categorize abilities shared by roles, like Tank or Healer, rather than by jobs as is currently the way.
The inventory is also going to undergo an "extreme" expansion, which sounds like it will be a lot more work than you might think and will thus be rolled out over time, to ensure the game servers can handle the extra load. It's also possible that Stormblood will be exclusive to 64-bit versions of Windows, as Yoshida said Square Enix wants to move away from 32-bit systems. "We really want you to upgrade," he said.
More will be revealed at the Tokyo Fan Fest, which will take place December 24-25. In the meantime, here's a little foreplay.
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