Square Enix Announces Final Fantasy XIV Compensation

Square Enix has announced all Final Fantasy XIV accounts will be given an extra week of free play time to compensate for ongoing server woes.

A post on The Lodestone explains that anyone who has registered Final Fantasy XIV or does so before 11.59 PM PDT on September 9 will have an extra week of free game time added to their account, in addition to the month that comes when you buy a copy of the game.

The post reads, "Since the beginning of official service on August 27, 2013, the number of users attempting to access the game has significantly exceeded our initial estimates. While we are pleased to see support for the game reach far beyond our expectations, the servers were not prepared to handle this influx of players. As a result, our servers have been pushed beyond maximum capacity.

"In order to allow access to as many users as possible, we have implemented login and character creation restrictions. We understand, however, that these restrictions have greatly inconvenienced our players.

"Because login and character creation restrictions have hindered our ability to provide quality service, all Final Fantasy XIV service accounts will receive an additional seven days of free play time."

Additionally, the company has announced a 10-hour emergency maintenance period will take place later today to try and sort all the problems.

"To resolve this issue, we will be performing maintenance from September 3, 2013, at 5:00 PM to September 4, 2013, at 3:00 AM PDT, for the purpose of increasing the number of available Worlds, reducing stress on the Duty Finder servers, and increasing the number of concurrent logins allowed for each server."

If all goes well then, it looks like we should be seeing an end to the worst of the issues by tomorrow. This isn't an unusual situation for MMO launches, which always tend to be rather rocky. It's good to see that Square is already taking positive steps to try and improve the situation, including switching off digital sales for the time being.

Have you managed to play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn yet and, if so, what do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor and long-time lover of both Final Fantasy and MMOs. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.