Final Fantasy 14 Devs Will Add An Auto-Logout Feature To Combat Server Congestion

Final Fantasy XIV has seen a massive influx of players, especially following the Endwalker expansion reveal and popular World of Warcraft streamer Asmongold playing the MMORPG to over 200,000 people earlier this month. The surge has resulted in a myriad of server issues such as instability and long queues. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida shared a lengthy blog post outlining some steps the development team will take to combat server congestion, which include implementing features like automatic logout.

In the blog, posted to the game's official North America website, Yoshida said incoming features like auto-logout are "an effective means to temporarily combat [server] congestion." Though only a temporary solution, more permanent fixes are in the works. This includes things like increasing server capacity across the North America and European regions to allow for more simultaneous player logins, as well as upping the amount of data centers around the world to withstand the rush.

Auto-logout will function just as it sounds when it arrives in Patch 5.58. If players are idle for an unspecified amount of time, they will be automatically logged out. This is to ensure those sitting in the queue, who sometimes are people creating a character for the first time, can log in to play.

However, there is a roadblock preventing the dev team from increasing server capacity and upping data centers: the pandemic. COVID-19 has thoroughly disrupted the tech industry, and Final Fantasy XIV is feeling the pinch as well. According to Yoshida, because of the ongoing semiconductor shortage and global travel restrictions, the team can't deliver a remedy as fast as they would like. Yoshida said the team hasn't given up and is actively monitoring the situation to restart its efforts.

With the exception of auto-logout, the features in the pipeline to address Final Fantasy XIV's server issues won't come until at least Patch 7.0. Until then, Yoshida is asking players to be courteous to one another. Log out when you're not actually playing the game. Remain in the queue despite how long the wait is. Don't create a new character during peak play periods. These actions, in conjunction with the team's efforts, should help alleviate the stress the servers have been under in recent weeks.

Final Fantasy XIV's popularity has exploded. Steamchartz reports the game seeing a 35% gain in players within the last 30 days. Meanwhile, the MMORPG has some 10,000 viewers on Twitch at the time of this writing. And likely thanks to Asmongold, the game broke its previous peak record of 41,200 concurrent players--though even that has been broken this past weekend, with Steam reporting some 67,148 players between July 17-18.

The game's upcoming expansion, Endwalker, was revealed earlier this year and launches on November 23. Those who preorder get access on November 19. Endwalker adds a bevy of content to the game, including the new melee DPS job Reaper, more zones to explore, and additional raids.