Final Fantasy 14 North American Fan Fest canceled, patch 5.3 delayed to July

The North American Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival has been canceled and patch 5.3’s release date has been pushed to July, according to an announcement by producer Naoki Yoshida.

The Fan Festival was originally supposed to take place in San Diego this November, but it has been canceled due to the concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. The team does plan on trying to host a Fan Festival in North America during the first half of 2021 to make up for it. Japan and Europe’s Fan Festivals will take place as planned as of right now.

The Shadowbringers expansion released in 2019, and since expansions release around every two years, it’s likely that we would have gotten information about an expansion to release in 2021. Now, if an announcement of a major expansion is still on the way, fans will either hear about it online or during one of the other two Fan Festivals still scheduled.

Yoshida also confirmed that patch 5.3 will be delayed by “more than a month at the very least,” though the team is doing what they can to avoid delaying it for too long. Originally, he noted that patch 5.3 would be delayed from mid-June to a later date, but he was unsure if this meant weeks or a month. The Final Fantasy 14 dev team had to set up at-home work areas and Yoshida notes that the team is only working at “85-90% capability.” There has been no new date given for patch 5.3’s release.

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