Coronavirus interrupts Final Fantasy XIV patch release schedule

Square Enix's big cash-crop subscription Final Fantasy XIV has been interrupted from worldwide coronavirus lockdowns.

Final Fantasy XIV's updates are currently at a standstill thanks to coronavirus disruption. Game director Naoki Yoshida confirms the MMORPG's planned 5.3 patch has been delayed as the game's worldwide teams are quarantined against COVID-19 spread. Yoshida explains that everything from QA testing, voice acting, and of course asset animation and generation has been affected as workers are stuck at home.

Yoshida affirms the update is still coming, but it won't meet its original June launch date--it could be delayed up to a month. The team is currently rolling out server maintenance from their homes, so don't worry, you won't be abandoned.

According to interviews from February 2020, Final Fantasy XIV's big 5.3 update patch will conclude the Shadowbringers story arc while introducing a "new kind of lifestyle content" to gamers. It won't include a new ultimate, though.

FFXIV relies heavily on our development and QA partners across the world, and at this point, we must accept that the situation will significantly impact our development schedule. The reasons for this are:

• Delayed delivery of graphical assets due to the lockdown of cities in East Asia, North America, and Europe.
• Delayed voice recording due to the lockdown of cities in Europe.
• Delays to development tasks performed by Tokyo staff due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations.
• Production and QA teams operating well below normal capacity due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations.

Though it is clear that patch 5.3, which was planned for mid-June, will be delayed because of the above, we are at this time undecided as to whether it will be feasible to limit the delay to two or three weeks, or if it will be closer to a month.