Early access to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which was given to players as a bonus for pre-ordering, was supposed to begin the morning of August 24th and run until August 29th; after this time the game officially launches and everyone else will supposedly gain server access. Unfortunately, the pre-launch hasn’t gone as smoothly as some have hoped and it’s left a bitter taste in the mouths of many paying customers.
Since early Saturday morning, servers have been plagued with downtimes, bugged characters, long login queues and a broken duty interface (similar to an instance finder in World of Warcraft). So far it’s felt like the game has been unplayable longer than it’s been fully functional. Although, when it has been working it’s been looking great.
As of right now, this is what you can expect when attempting to login to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn:
Anyone who’s ever played an MMO on launch day knows that there are going to be all kinds of issues and bugs to be worked out, as the developers try to deal with the strained servers due to a huge influx of players. However, there are still plenty of players out there who feel entitled to working content the day of release, and to some extent they’re in the right.
Something that needs to be brought to the attention of the public, or at least the public of Eorzea, is that this early access is nothing more than a second phase to the open beta. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, despite its numerous closed and open beta tests, has never had to deal with the server constraints that are essentially breaking the game right now. It’s important that everyone remains patient and gives Square Enix a few days to work out all of the major issues that are impeding an enjoyable gaming experience; any rushed fixes will likely lead to even more problems down the line.
With that in mind, it’s even more important that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is in working order by the actual release date. After the tragedy that was the original Final Fantasy XIV, and all of its issues on and after release, it’s imperative that Square Enix gets it right or fans aren’t likely to be as forgiving this time around.