Square Enix has confirmed it will be suspending the planned demolition of unused player housing in Final Fantasy 14 following a major earthquake in Japan.
On New Year’s Day, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Noto Peninsula of Japan, killing at least 80 people (via the BBC) and leaving thousands without power or shelter. It’s reported that due to the devastation caused by the earthquake, the death toll is expected to rise in the coming days. 33,000 people have also been evacuated from the area while over 100,000 homes still don’t have running water.
“From all of us on the Final Fantasy 14 development and management team, our hearts go out to those who were affected by the massive earthquake that occurred in Noto Peninsula,” said a statement from Square Enix before the company confirmed that “due to the damages and other factors, we have decided to temporarily suspend the automatic demolition of estates.”
Final Fantasy 14 has a limited number of plots available on each server for player’s to build houses. To allow new players a fair chance at owning property, Square Enix regularly removes player houses if they haven’t been visited in 45 days.
As it stands, that process will be paused for all Japanese servers for the foreseeable future. “As for when auto-demolition will resume, we will monitor the situation in the coming days, and inform you all when we have come to a decision that auto-demolition can commence again,” wrote Square Enix. “It is our sincere hope that recovery is swift, and those of you who were affected will be able to rejoin us in Final Fantasy 14 soon.”
Auto-demolition has previously been suspended due to the popularity of Final Fantasy 14’s Endwalker expansion, as well as in response to “real world” events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria last summer.
Final Fantasy 14’s fifth expansion Dawntrail is currently due for release later this summer which will introduce two new classes to the game.
In other news, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy is being given away for free, via the Epic Games Store.