Square Enix docks Final Fantasy 14's character creation, halts sales (update)

Square Enix has temporarily docked the character creation feature for Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn across 17 servers following its launch today, according to an update on the game's official forums, and the company will halt further sales until the game's server capacity is expanded.

"Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, we are currently experiencing extremely long wait times for users to be able to log in and play," a statement on Square Enix's official Facebook page reads. "As a temporary measure, we will halt sales of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn's digital download products so we can accommodate all of those wishing to play. We are working to expand our server capacity in the coming days."

When the game rolled-out to pre-order customers over the weekend, a number of European and North American players experienced an error 1017 message saying "The World is currently full. Please wait until an opening is available and try again" when logging into the game. Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn's producer and director Naoki Yoshida took to the game's official forums earlier this week to apologize for the game's early access performance.

"Currently, we have stopped allowing the creation of new characters in the following worlds," the recent update on the forums states. "We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your cooperation and understanding."

Yoshida recently said in an interview on the PlayStation Blog that Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn will get "a major update every three months" after its release with ongoing support included in the monthly subscription.

Realm Reborn launched Aug. 27 for PlayStation 3 and Windows PC and is slated for a 2014 on PlayStation 4. It costs $39.99 on PlayStation 3 and $29.99 on Windows PC with a $12.99 monthly subscription fee.

Polygon has reached out to Square Enix for more information.

Update: Square Enix issued an update on its official Facebook page today outlining that the implementation of new servers, login and match-making enhancements may be completed by the end of this week. The update can be read in full on its Facebook page.

To ensure that we maintain a quality level of service for everyone, we have been setting restrictions on both the creation of characters as well as adjusting the number of users that are able to log in. We are well aware that these restrictions are a source of frustration for our users who are waiting to play.

To address this matter, we are currently working on introducing new Worlds and enhancing the performance of the login and match making processes on both the Japanese and North American & European data centers. This operation is expected to be completed at the beginning of next week.

Until this operation is complete, we would like to prioritize the quality of service for those who have already purchased the game. Therefore, we are temporarily suspending the sale of the digital download versions of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. Once the operation has been completed, the sale of the digital download version will resume.