Update 13-05-2025:The previous headline to this article appeared to give the impression that all Final Fantasy 14 expansions had halted production. This is not the message we wished to convey, and we have since updated the headline to more accurately reflect the information. We apologize for any confusion this has caused. -Rhiannon Bevan, Deputy News Lead
Final Fantasy 14is these days perhaps one of Square Enix’s most popular games. Although it certainly didn’t start off that way, a 2013 relaunch and a steady stream of content drops and expansions have produced one of the biggest MMOs around. Final Fantasy 14 expansions are always blockbuster affairs with playerswaiting many hours just to log in. Endwalker, the latest expansion released in December 2021, broke the game’s concurrent user record on Steam, confirming Final Fantasy 14 is still on an upward arc.
But that might soon change. Square Enix just released its third-quarter financial results, and they’re not pretty.Sales and operating income are both down(although profits are up) after the high-profile flop ofBabylon’s Fall. And on top of that,slide 11 of the presentationconfirms that Final Fantasy 14 doesn’t currently have any new expansions planned.
Related:Final Fantasy 14 Could Learn From Final Fantasy 11’s Conquest System
“No expansion pack releases planned but will focus on retaining users through a variety of operational initiatives,” the Final Fantasy publisher wrote for both Final Fantasy 14 and Dragon Quest X.
Since Heavensward’s release in 2015, Final Fantasy 14 players have gotten used to an expansion coming every two years.Endwalker was delayedfrom the summer of 2021 to December thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but fans were still largely expecting an expansion sometime in 2023. Even game director Naoki Yoshida seemed to be expecting an expansion this year,teasing players with a level cap of 100coming in this year’s expansion during a recent livestream.
It seems absolutely baffling how a game on an upward trajectory would suddenly change its monetization formula without warning even to its game director. The wording gives the impression that work on Final Fantasy 14’s next big expansion hasn’t started yet, making a 2023 release unlikely. But so far there has been no official word on the timeframe.
We’ll be sure to report on this story as it develops.
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