Pretty soon Final Fantasy 14 will let you visit friends on different data centers

Shadowbringers
(Image credit: Square Enix)

During a Final Fantasy 14 expansion reveal livestream, director Naoki Yoshida revealed that the development team is working on a system that will let players visit their friends on entirely different data centers. This effectively means that players will be able to play with friends regardless of what server they are on, even if they're in a different region.

If you're not a FF14 player, this might be a bit confusing because of the jargon. But, like a lot of MMOs, players are segregated into different servers with a limited population. Those servers, however, are bundled together on different data centers—some of which are dedicated to specific geographical regions.

Traditionally, players on one server cannot play with those on another, but several years ago Square Enix added the World Visit system that let players jump around servers that were on the same data center. Today, however, Yoshida explained another system is coming that will soon let players jump between data centers, effectively removing the final barrier preventing you from playing with your friends.

Details are scarce, but Yoshida did say that the system would come with a fair amount of restrictions in order to keep servers balanced. He also mentioned that system would likely require players to log out before switching—a big difference considering the World Travel system lets you jump between servers while still staying in the game.

Either way, that's exciting news—especially if you have friends that are on different data centers. Of course, this was far from the most exciting thing announced tonight. For more information on the newly announced Endwalker expansion, here's our story.

Steven Messner

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.

Latest in Final Fantasy
A lolporrit squeals in excitement while being driven in a moon buggie in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, patch 7.2.
Final Fantasy 14 patch 7.2's trailer has me finally hyped to get stuck back in—and to go to the moon and pilot some mechs, because why not
In a world of WoW Classics and Old School RuneScapes… could Final Fantasy 14 ever do the same?
Honey B Lovely
The state of Final Fantasy 14 in 2025: It's in a weird spot, huh?
Final Fantasy 16
Final Fantasy 16 is the latest game to be freed from the shackles of Denuvo, though its 7-year-old predecessor still remains in DRM jail
Pint, a lalafellin mage, looks towards the sunset sky and closes his eyes in gracious defeat in Final Fantasy 14.
FF14 streamer yields to the MMO's bounciest catgirl, after inspiring them to beat his new speedrunning record 3 times before he could finish making a video about it
A Vanu Vanu munches on a soft taco
Final Fantasy 14 is, you guessed it, still making bank for Square Enix as Dawntrail rakes in the big bucks, though it might not be all sunshine and tacos
Latest in News
A woman with an arcane slingshot uses it to light a distant fire
Deconstructeam's next game is about training to shoot a single fireball at an impossible target
assassin's creed shadow naoe
We asked two parkour athletes to rate the realism of Assassin's Creed's acrobatics, and a surprising 'crime against parkour' might actually be one of the most realistic things they saw
Mechs fight on the outside of a spaceship
MechWarrior 5: Clans is getting DLC with playable Elementals and a fight on the outside of a spaceship
Aloy - Horizon
'I feel worried about this art form:' Unsurprisingly, the real Aloy from Horizon isn't a fan of AI Aloy
Crying laughing emoji with disturbing realistic elements for REPO
REPO's first update will add a new map and a 'duck bucket' so we can finally give that pesky quacker a time out
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'