Still on track for an October patch release
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers wowed pretty much everyone at launch, but the hype has since subsided a bit as folks have exhausted all of the available content: if you don’t raid, that period came even sooner for you.
That’s all about to change soon though, because Square Enix is dropping a customary gigantic patch on us this month, and the next preview is set for October 18. As announced by way of the game’s official Twitter account, at 20:00 JST (7AM ET that same day) on Friday October 18, we’ll get a closer look at the NieR-themed raid, the Ishgard reconstruction, and Onsal Hakhai.
Most importantly (to some), Square Enix is trying to alleviate (but not solve) the housing problem in Final Fantasy XIV with patch 5.1. The publisher is adding three new wards (19-21) to each district, which translates to a ton of new housing for all (there are multiple houses in each ward, coming out to 180 new plots for each district on each server). A second apartment building is also being added to every ward (which have finite apartment rooms): however, housing plots in wards 19-21 will only be limited to Free Company (guild) sales.
There’s so much to unpack here, but I fully expect people to game the system by creating endless Free Companies to buy up all the housing with: which has already happened on multiple servers. While the dream of non-instanced housing is part of what sets FFXIV apart from a lot of other droll online worlds, the Sisyphean task of keeping players happy is an eternal struggle.
Final Fantasy XIV [Twitter]
