The Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.3 update, originally planned for a mid-June release, has been delayed due to Japan's recent state of emergency order. According to director/producer Naoki Yoshida, it's unclear whether the patch will be delayed a few weeks or a month.
Yoshida recently announced the news in a blog post on the official Final Fantasy XIV website, in which he explains how the developers have been ordered to work from home due to the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic, and because of this, the development timeline for the MMORPG's latest patch has been delayed.
"We are terribly sorry for the disappointment this may cause our players, as we know you look forward to new patches," Yoshida said. "However, it is also important to prioritize the physical and mental health of our development team, without whom we would never be able to release the quality updates and features you expect from FFXIV, so we ask for your understanding as we adjust our schedule in accordance with the situation."
Patch 5.3 was intended to be the next major update in the Shadowbringers content cycle. Although Square Enix didn't officially reveal what would be featured in the upcoming update, many players were expecting a new chapter in the Alliance Raid cycle which is a collaboration with Nier: Automata and its director Yoko Taro.
In his blog post, Yoshida detailed exactly what has been delayed by the state of emergency: "Delayed delivery of graphical assets due to the lockdown of cities in East Asia, North America, and Europe. Delayed voice recording due to the lockdown of cities in Europe. Delayed to development tasks performed by Tokyo staff due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations. Production and QA teams operating well below normal capacity due to work-from-home/shelter-in-place limitations."
Yoshida also said that players can expect slowed implementation for bug fixes, and longer than usual responses from the support team as a result of the work-from-home orders.
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