If you’re on home isolation, you may be looking for a new game to try out and Square Enix aims to please. The company has announced that it is running a Free Login Campaign for Final Fantasy XIV, one of the world’s most popular MMORPGs. We’ve got the skinny on how to get started.
- From now through May 17th, new players can sign up for an account or returning players can log in to their accounts if they have been inactive for at least 30 days.
- Download the game that includes all current content including the Shadowbringers expansion. The game is currently up to v5.2 which includes a brand new set of quests by Final Fantasy Tactics writer Yasumi Matsuno.
- Once a player logs into the game for the first time, the timer begins. Players will have up to eight days to play through the content — that’s a whopping 192 hours of eligible time. Keep in mind that the time keeps ticking whether or not a player is in the game.
- Once the timer expires, players can choose to subscribe to the game and will find all of their progress retained.
It is prudent to keep in mind that future patches to FFXIV will be delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, game director Naoki Yoshida wrote to the community to inform them of future content delays.
“FFXIV relies heavily on our development and QA partners across the world, and at this point, we must accept that the situation will significantly impact our development schedule. The reasons for this are:
- Delayed delivery of graphical assets due to the lockdown of cities in East Asia, North America, and Europe.
- Delayed voice recording due to the lockdown of cities in Europe.
- Delays to development tasks performed by Tokyo staff due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations.
- Production and QA teams operating well below normal capacity due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations.
Though it is clear that patch 5.3, which was planned for mid-June, will be delayed because of the above, we are at this time undecided as to whether it will be feasible to limit the delay to two or three weeks, or if it will be closer to a month.”
However, even with delays in future content, there is a wealth of exploration to be found in FFXIV throughout its expansions. Is it the game for you? Only you can find out so be sure to swing by the Final Fantasy XIV official site to get started on the Free Login Event.