Square Enix Details Final Fantasy 14's New Data Center Travel System

Final Fantasy XIV is getting a new data center travel system, and Square Enix has now explained how it works in a detailed blog post.

As it currently stands, players in Final Fantasy XIV are essentially locked into the data center they originally made their characters on and are only able to play the game with other players in that same data center. There are physical data centers for various regions like North America and Japan, followed by what Square Enix calls logical data centers, which each house multiple Worlds, aka servers. Come patch 6.18, the new data center travel system will make it so players can temporarily visit another logical data center in the same physical data center and essentially play the game like normal, with a few restrictions.

While the system is similar to the already existing world visit system, data center travel allows players to visit worlds outside their own data center. After arriving on a new data center, players can progress through quests, form parties, add players to their friend list, engage in chat, buy items from the market board, and participate in raids, dungeons, and PvP. The same restrictions that apply while using the world visit system apply here. Primary features that can only be accessed on a character's original home world include housing, free companies, linkshells, and retainers. The process to visit another data center typically takes less than three minutes, though Square Enix notes that during extremely busy periods the feature could take up to 30 minutes.

"The scope of your communication and gameplay will expand dramatically as you can participate in raids with other players, play with previously unreachable friends and acquaintances, tour player housing, participate in player events, and more," writes Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida in the blog post.

It's sometimes a struggle in MMOs to play with friends who may have created characters on different servers, so this looks to largely remedy that situation. Square Enix also outlines changes coming to the game's Japanese physical data center, where it will be adding a new logical data center and redistributing world. The new logical data center will help reduce server strain during busy periods such as new expansion releases.

Final Fantasy XIV has seen a surge in popularity in recent months, with Square Enix pulling the game from stores at one point in an effort to combat overcrowded servers. The MMO is now back on sale following the delayed launch of the game's latest expansion, Endwalker.