"Final Fantasy 14 Servers Face Major Outage"

Summary

• Final Fantasy 14's recent server outage in North America was likely caused by a power outage, not a DDoS attack.
• Players experienced server disconnects affecting all four NA Data Centers.
• Square Enix is currently investigating the matter.

On January 5, Final Fantasy 14 players across North America encountered a significant server outage. Shortly after 8:00 PM Eastern, all four North American Data Centers went offline, disrupting gameplay for countless users. According to social media reports from affected players, the incident stemmed from a power outage in the Sacramento area, believed to be caused by a transformer malfunction. The servers were back online within an hour of the initial reports.

This latest outage adds to a series of technical challenges faced by Final Fantasy 14 throughout 2024. The game has been repeatedly targeted by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which flood servers with false data, causing high latency and server disconnects. While Square Enix has implemented various mitigation strategies, completely preventing DDoS attacks remains challenging. Players have found that using a virtual private network (VPN) can help improve their connection during these attacks.

However, the January 5 incident was unrelated to DDoS attacks. On the r/ffxiv subreddit, players shared their experiences leading up to the outage. User Sarikitty reported hearing a loud explosion in Sacramento, where Final Fantasy 14's North American Data Centers are located. Other users corroborated that the sound was typical of a transformer blowing out, which could have led to the power outage affecting the servers. Square Enix acknowledged the issue on the Lodestone, stating that they are investigating the matter.

Final Fantasy 14's North American Data Centers Return From Major Outage

The outage was confined to North America, with the Europe, Japan, and Oceanic data centers remaining unaffected, reinforcing the theory of a localized power issue. At the time of this report, the Aether, Crystal, and Primal Data Centers were gradually coming back online, while the newest addition, the Dynamis Data Center, was still inaccessible.

As Final Fantasy 14 gears up for ambitious plans in 2025, including the launch of Final Fantasy 14 Mobile, these server issues represent yet another hurdle the game must overcome. The impact of these ongoing challenges on the game's future remains to be seen.