During a recent stream focused on Final Fantasy 14 (translation via ResetEra), director and producer Naoko Yoshida revealed that it had already seen about 160-180% more pre-orders than the 2019 expansion Shadowbringers did. Yoshida also said that the MMORPG’s player count has grown to the stage where Square Enix is now planning a “multi-million dollar investment” to expand and improve the game’s servers- though that’s not going to happen before version 6.0 is out later this year.

Even so, that – combined with the fact that Square Enix as at least five more years’ worth of content planned for the game and might even consider completely updating its graphics engine in the future – just drives home the point that Final Fantasy 14 is going to be sticking around and expanding for a long time (not that that was ever in doubt).

Final Fantasy 14 is available on PS5, PS4, and PC, and might some day launch for Xbox as well (maybe). Endwalker is launching on November 23.

The saga of Final Fantasy 14 is something else, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. Not only is the game soon to have a new expansion, it’s also coming to PS5 with Square Enix saying they have up to 5 years of more content planned. It also seems that there will be some consistency here as well as the Lead Writer from the last expansion will return.

Shadowbringers was the previous major expansion for 14 that released in 2019. It was largely acclaimed, and as reported by Fanbyte, Natsuko Ishikawa will return as the Lead Writer/Main Scenario Writer for the upcoming continuation confirmed Director Naoki Yoshida.

“Yes, she’s cheerfully (and perhaps somewhat frantically, as does happen) pouring her heart and soul into each line of dialogue for each and every character,” Yoshida said. “Of course, she did not work alone in creating the main scenario (for Shadowbringers as well)—the story is born from the hard work of each member of the team contributing to make the best story possible. Endwalker is following a similar flow, so please look forward to it!”

Final Fantasy 14 is available now on PlayStation 4 and PC with a PS5 version set to release at some point in the future. Endwalkers will launch sometime this fall.

Maintenance has wrapped for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and patch 5.41 is now live. It introduces a decent palette of new quests, namely story and side quests for the Ishgardian Restoration. The side quests are unlocked upon completing the main quests.

Other new features include new items, new room furnishings and new recipes. Players taking part in the Eden’s Verse, part of the Shadowbringers raid, on Savage will now receive the Echo’s power. This increases one’s maximum HP, damage dealt and healing ability by 10 percent. If all party members are incapacitated, it won’t take effect so keep that in mind.

Final Fantasy 14 has quite a bit in store next month. An announcement showcase has been set for February 5th at 5:30 PM PT and will apparently have “cool things” in store. The obvious speculation is that a new expansion will be announced with a possible release date this year. Stay tuned for more updates on the same in the coming weeks.

Square Enix’s latest major update for Final Fantasy 14 is now available. Patch 5.2 “Echoes of a Fallen Star” offers a hefty amount of content with new main scenario quests, the new Anamnesis Anyder dungeon and the second part of Eden’s Verse raid. A new Trial, Cinder Drift, is also available and see players battling Ruby Weapon from Final Fantasy 7.

But wait, there’s more, including new Beast Tribe quests and new fishing content which sees players sailing on a ship and fishing to their hearts’ content. New quests are available for “Resistance Weapon” equipment enhancement and several adjustments have been made to existing Jobs and New Game Plus mode. New Game Plus has also seen several new chapters added to it.

It’s a pretty hefty update overall and should keep players busy for a good long while. Final Fantasy 14 is currently available on PS4 and PC with an Xbox One release planned. It’s latest expansion is Shadowbringers which received tons of acclaim for its story-telling and content.

Square Enix’s massively successful MMO Final Fantasy 14 will receive “Echoes of a Fallen Star”, it’s latest patch, in mid-February. To showcase just what fans can expect, the development team has released a new trailer. And yes, that is Ruby Weapon from Final Fantasy 7.

Players can also expect new main scenario quests, Eden’s Verse raids, a new dungeon “Anamnesis Anyder” and a new Trail. Crafting and gathering are receiving overhauls while ocean fishing is being made possible. If that weren’t enough, New Game Plus will be receiving some updates as well. There’s a fair bit of content to go through, even by the standards of a Final Fantasy 14 update.

The future of Final Fantasy 14, even past this major update, is looking fairly bright. The MMO has passed 18 million players and will be coming to Xbox One later this year. Stay tuned for a proper release date for patch 5.2 – Echoes of a Fallen Star in the coming days.

Ancestors: Humankind Odyssey

So Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Desilets’ vision for a survival game isn’t the best. That being said, if you ever wanted to experience prehistoric journey, from the growth of your tribe all the way to its evolution millions of years later, Ancestors might be worth checking out. It encompasses combat, survival, stealth, exploration and yes, even dying. A lot. As you learn more, craft tools and carry your tribe forward, so too does the world around you change.

Square Enix has released a new trailer for Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers’ patch 5.1, titled “Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty.” Along with some new main scenario quests, it also introduces the first part of the YorRHA: Dark Apocalypse raid. This is the raid series that crosses over with NieR: Automata featuring Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito as guest creators.

“The Copied Factory” requires 24 players and we see several large Machine bosses throughout the trailer. A 2B-like figure also plays a key role, though how the worlds ultimately crossover has yet to be explained. Other content that fans can look forward include a new dungeon, The Grand Cosmos, which takes place in a gorgeous palace.

New Game+ is also coming, allowing players to replay main scenario quests from all previous expansions while their progress carries over. If you want to relive the story, battles and dialogue throughout the game’s history, then New Game+ is for you. Patch 5.1 is out on October 29th for PS4 and PC so stay tuned in the meantime.

As acclaimed as Final Fantasy 14 has been, especially the new Shadowbringers’ expansion, getting from A Realm Reborn through to Heavensward can be taxing. Thankfully, as per the 53rd Live Letter from the Producer stream (translation courtesy of Bayohne on the forums), Square Enix will be condensing the base game’s main scenario quest. This change will take place in patch 5.3, which is still a ways off.

Along with making the base story “more compact”, the development is also working on a New Game Plus system. Details are still pending as to what the latter will do but it’s also coming in patch 5.3. As for the upcoming patch 5.1, it’s confirmed to have the first part of the highly anticipated NieR: Automata crossover raids, “YoRHa Apocalypse”.

The development team also teased that a “special guest” would be on the next stream to talk about YoRHa Apocalypse. Considering that NieR director Yoko Taro is designing the raids, it wouldn’t be all that strange to see him. Stay tuned for more details and updates in the coming weeks.

Having relaunched in 2013, Final Fantasy 14 is a game that, in spite of being years old by this point, still looks really good. But as is often the case with long-running MMOs, simply by virtue of how old it is, it also doesn’t hold up in terms of visuals as compared to contemporary games.

But is a visual upgrade on the docket for the highly successful and beloved MMO? Is that something Square Enix are looking into? Recently, while speaking with DualShockers, Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida said that he understands why fans of the game want a visual upgrade, and that at least as far as desire is concerned, it’s something that he wants to do.

“Of course, I understand that with the different MMORPGs some of them have become old,” said Yoshida. “We see many titles that have released in the past and some that reflect the graphics depiction in sort of updated ways as time goes. I’m sure people do want to see the graphical quality improve in the game. I totally understand that. From that perspective, yes, we would love to eventually update the graphics so we can continue to claim that Final Fantasy XIV has world class graphics while being an MMORPG. The simple answer is, yes, there’s always that desire.”

That said, don’t take that to mean a visual upgrade is on its way- because it isn’t. Yoshida then went on to say that the process of keeping an MMO active and functioning – on top of constantly releasing meaty new expansions for it – is a very busy and hectic process, and if Square Enix were to add a visual upgrade on top of that, they might not be able to maintain their output.

“There are two major issues with it,” he said. “Even now, we strive to have high-quality visuals. It is very detailed, very vivid, we made sure the quality’s already high. When we think of rendering this to still look beautiful on a 4K monitor, making sure that the texture doesn’t become degraded, adding more polygons in our models, of course, it’s not impossible to do but we currently have a patch upgrade cycle. We release a major patch or update every three and a half months or so, and all of the gear we design and the content we build is part of that cycle.

“It is quite aggressive even now so if we add on top of that the workflow for making our graphics depiction advanced  it will add to the cost that is required. We would have to add to the workflow as well and not just cost in terms of bandwidth, time as well, it’s not a matter of just adding additional people who can resolve this issue. It is quite a tough predicament. If we were to start considering upgrading the graphics into our normal development schedule, I’d be very worried about our cycle.”

Personally, I don’t think a visual upgrade is all that necessary for FF14 in any case. Sure, it doesn’t look cutting edge, but Final Fantasy 14 is still a really good looking game- and the fact that it it’s built on six year old visuals doesn’t really matter when the game itself is as stellar as this one is. I mean, just look at its most recent expansion.

Super Mario Maker 2 has, unsurprisingly, been performing very well the world over since its launch. That, of course, is true for Japan as well. Last week, it topped Japanese sales charts while selling almost 200,000 units. This week, as per sales data released by Famitsu, the game retains its top placed finish, while still managing to sell an impressive 83,000 units in its second week on the market.

In second place is Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers. The expansion has had a decent debut, selling over 22,000 units. Meanwhile, Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle, the expanded re-release of the 2018 game, has also debuted well, with its Switch version occupying fourth place and the PS4 version taking the sixth spot, selling over 19,000 and nearly 15,000 respectively.

Yo-Kai Watch 4 takes the third spot, selling over 19,000 copies (with not much of a gap between the third and fourth placed games). Permanent fixtures such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, and Super Smash Bros, Ultimate also figure in the top 10.

On the hardware side of things, the Switch continues to see a rise in sales. After having nearly doubled its weekly sales last week, it’s seen another bump of over 15,000 units this week, having sold over 75,000 units. The PS4, meanwhile, has seen a bit of a drop, selling over 11,000 units this week as opposed to last week’s over 18,000.

You can take a look at the full software and hardware sales charts for the week ending July 7 below.

Software sales (lifetime sales)

1. [NSW] Super Mario Maker 2 – 83,204 / 279,357
2. [PS4] Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers – 22,260 / NEW 
3. [NSW] Yo-kai Watch 4: We Are Looking Up at the Same Sky – 19,407 / 210,504
4. [NSW] Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle – 19,127 / NEW 
5. [NSW] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball – 18,719 / 94,224
6. [PS4] Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle – 14,817 / NEW 
7. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 8,968 / 3,149,468
8. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 8,183 / 2,356,972
9. [NSW] Minecraft – 7,234 / 837,919
10. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 6,072 / 3,105,283

Hardware sales (last week’s sales)

Switch – 75,481 (59,184)
PS4 – 11,303 (18,773)
Xbox One – 121 (178)
3DS – 2,550 (2,713)
PS Vita – 206 (115)

[Via ResetEra]