Following the release of patch 5.3, game director Naoki Yoshida posted a blog outlining what's next on the agenda for Final Fantasy 14. With version 5.3, the game's free trial has been substantially expanded to include all of Heavensward. As a result of this, as well as players staying at home and playing more throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, space on Hydaelyn is getting tight, prompting the need for more in-game housing.
Space isn't only becoming a problem due to more players joining the game, however—normally, having a house in FF14 requires you to log in every 30 days to avoid losing it, but with the economic impact of the pandemic the development team acknowledged that a lot of players would not be able to maintain their subscriptions, and suspended housing demolition. That, together with the large number of new players, is making housing increasingly difficult to come by. In real-world terms, more housing can only be acquired through more servers, but the pandemic made that difficult, too, so now the focus has shifted to optimising the existing servers instead.
"In light of difficulties in improving the data centers, the development team is doing what it can to further optimize the servers to allow for the addition of as many housing plots as we can by the release of Patch 5.4," Yoshida said.
"We will make a follow-up announcement when we’ve finalized the timetable for these additions, and have determined how many can be added."
If you're a new player, rest assured it will take a while for the housing problem to affect you, as you need to reach level 50 and the second Lieutenant rank with your Grand Company before you have to worry about available plots.
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