Blizzard's newest expansion to the sixteen-year-old World of Warcraft has launched, and as players have begun exploring the new quests, instances, and areas, a competitor has taken the time to offer its own congratulations. The highly anticipated expansion Shadowlands arrived today and was met with excitement from the community and the gaming industry.
In a Twitter post on the official Final Fantasy 14 account, Square Enix congratulated World of Warcraft on the launch of Shadowlands, likely knowing the pressure of releasing a huge new expansion. Accompanying the tweet was a screenshot from the Shadowbringers FF14 expansion, which had a similarly dark tone.
The World of Warcraft Twitter account has responded to the words of encouragement from Final Fantasy 14 with a warm thank you and a fist bump to show their own appreciation for the post. Fortunately, even though the two games are easily the largest competition for each other, that doesn't keep them from acknowledging when the other takes a big step forward. However, not every fan was quite as kind, thanks in part to the Shadowlands launch's server issues that bogged down players attempting to log into the new expansion.
The responses to Final Fantasy 14's tweet are decidedly mixed, with fans both supporting each game and condemning either for various reasons. This isn't entirely unusual for MMOs, whose fans have been with the games for years (or decades) and have a unique relationship with their experience. The Twitter accounts kept things civil at least, with both World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 leaving their comments to simple, PR appropriate responses to each other.
Considering how Blizzard and Square Enix each control two of the largest MMOs available at the moment, it is a pleasant surprise to see Final Fantasy 14 politely acknowledge the recent launch of Shadowlands. It would have been easy for each competitor to simply ignore the other and let the new expansion launch without incident, but Square Enix still saw it best to commend the effort put forward by Blizzard. This may have only been a small gesture, and likely one made to keep the peace between both the developers and the fans, though it is still reassuring that these companies are willing to acknowledge and encourage competition.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available now for PC.