Game producer and director Naoki Yoshida took to the Square Enix forums to explain what they are now doing to handle ongoing issues with logging in to Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. Among other things, they may extend the free trial period.
First off, regarding the current status, Square Enix is actively monitoring server load and population around the clock to make appropriate adjustments. Concurrent connections are currently at a high of 230,000 players at a time, which means they are still dealing with downtime.
Square Enix is also finishing touches on duty finder servers that they will bundle with some new worlds in an upcoming scheduled maintenance on September 4, Wednesday (Japan time). Each world will be reopened with caution, in anticipation of higher login numbers, but overall, this is expected to solve the main problems.
Finally, they have not committed to it 100 %, but Square Enix claims they will consider extending free trial periods to all player accounts by another seven days. This extension will also be provided to nonlegacy players from 1.0, and will not start until after the scheduled maintenance is a success. They have considered to take this move to be fair to all players, because everyone encountered issues, irregardless if they were able to log in or not. They will provide a date for the trial extension in the near future.
I must admit, I myself am personally disappointed with Square Enix after seeing they have failed to properly prepare for the high interest in the game. They should have been ready, not only knowing recent debacles with Diablo III and SimCity, but their own experience with the game the first time. I do hope that they can put an end to the game’s issues this time around, as it should be a great experience if it was working.
Source: Square Enix forums
