Final Fantasy 14 is once again so popular it has been temporarily removed from sale

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 14 is enjoying something of a golden period as players bathe in Endwalker's glory, and all year it's proved an immensely popular game. With this has come some serious server issues and, particularly following Endwalker's release, a lot of people either stuck in queues or straight-up unable to play the game.

This is not Square Enix's first rodeo, and it's gone for an option deployed in the past by temporarily removing Final Fantasy 14's starter and complete editions from sale. Remarkably enough, it is also trying to suspend delivery of physical editions of the game.

"Players are currently experiencing extremely long wait times due to the dense concentration of play hours which far exceed our server capacity, especially during the peak times, and so we have decided to temporarily suspend the sale and delivery of FINAL FANTASY XIV Starter Edition and Complete Edition," writes Naoki Yoshida, the game's producer. "Additionally, although those with an active subscription are prioritised to log in, Free Trial players are unable to log in outside of late night and early morning hours, and so we will also temporarily suspend new registrations for the Free Trial."

Naoki Yoshida drinking red wine — (Image credit: Twitch)

Square Enix is also going to stop advertising the game for an unspecified period.

There's also some good news, however: The developers have worked out what was causing Error 2002 and "we have confirmed a bug." Guess what's to blame? "This bug was part of a login-related program created back in FFXIV version 1.0." That damn version 1.0! The fix will be in patch 6.01 which is scheduled for Tuesday 21 December.

Finally, Yoshida announced some compensation for players affected by the game's current technical issues: "We are aware that the long waiting times to log into the game are preventing players from playing, and for this, we sincerely apologise. In response to this, we recently granted 7 days of game time, but now we will also be granting an additional 14 days."

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."