Oceanian Data Center Launch Date and Future Additions Revealed as Digital Sales Resume for Final Fantasy XIV

On January 13th, Final Fantasy XIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida published a letter on The Lodestone discussing plans to improve Data Centers and resume digital sales. In the post, several points are laid out which include:

• The Oceanian Data Center, announced back at the 2021 Online Fan Festival, will be brought online on Tuesday, January 25, 2022 (JST). This will make for a smoother playing experience for those who play Final Fantasy XIV in Oceania.
  • Five new Worlds will be available from the start.
  • World Transfer Fees to and World on this Data Center will be waived, along with the recommencement of the service for all.
• The Data Center Travel System will launch in a 6.1x patch.
  • Players will be able to travel to and from any Worlds in any Data Center, not just within their own.
  • Rather than traveling via Aetheryte, similar to the World Visit feature, Data Center Travel is done from the Character Select screen.
  • Cross-Region travel is feasible, but is currently still under construction.

From there, Yoshida-san detailed specific Data Center and World additions for all regions, to help with the ever-expanding playerbase for Final Fantasy XIV:

• Japan will see one expansion phase in July 2022, adding one new Data Center while keeping the same number of Worlds, and increasing simultaneous logins by 50,000 or more.
• North America will see two expansion phases, one in August 2022, and the other in the Spring or Summer of 2023.
  • The first phase will see one new Data Center with four Worlds go live..
  • The second phase will add four Worlds under each Data Center.
  • A larger upgrade is set for the launch of 7.0, but no details have been given just yet.
• Europe will also see a two-phase expansion rollout, one in July 2022, and the second in the Summer 2023.
  • First, each current Data Center will receive two new Worlds.
  • Later, a new Data Center will be established with eight new Worlds.

Lastly, digital sales of the Starter Edition and Complete Edition of the game will be offered starting on January 25, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. (JST) to match the server expansion plans. However, new free trial account registration will still be unavailable while the team continues to monitor performance and stability issues that have been present since the launch of Endwalker. The letter caps off with a tease for future information coming in February involving 6.x patches and the launch of 7.0, the next major expansion.

Final Fantasy XIV is available on Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. For more, check out the official website. And, if you missed it, our glowing Endwalker review dropped yesterday.