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Square Enix wasn't ready to talk about its first major expansion pack for Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn at E3 2014, but game director Naoki Yoshida is planning an announcement for later this year.
In an interview with Yoshida during E3, he told Polygon that the game's first expansion — what the team is referring to as "version 3.0" of the game — will be revealed at the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival. Multiple Fan Festivals will be held throughout October and November in Las Vegas, London and Tokyo.
"We want the fans to know it first," Yoshida said. "They've been the ones supporting us."
But the wait for an expansion pack doesn't mean waiting for content. Yoshida assured us that Square Enix has a lot of things planned as additions to the game in its series of 2.x patches.
As an example, patch 2.3 is on the way next month. This will bring large-scale player-versus-player to the world in the "Frontlines" system — a much bigger PvP battlefield than the current 4v4 Wolves' Den.
On the player-versus-environment side, the update will include a 24-man raid that's meant to be very accessible despite its size and a new "hunt" system that allows players to track and battle special monsters across the world.
At some point shortly after patch 2.3's release, Yoshida says the game will add private estates for players to purchase and accessorize. Currently, players can only purchase housing as part of a guild (or free company, in Final Fantasy 14's terminology).
Patch 2.4 is also being planned for a little further down the road and will include the new rogue class and, spinning out from that, the new ninja job. This is the type of major content that has traditionally been saved for full, paid expansions in MMOs.
When we asked why Square saw fit to bring such a big addition to a patch, Yoshida laughed. "It's better for the players, right?" He also promised that the developer knows the types and amount of content players expect in an expansion, and is prepared to deliver.
