Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest Canceled, Patch 5.3 Delayed At Least A Month

The Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn North American Fan Festival has been canceled for 2020 and patch 5.3 has been delayed for at least a month. In a post on the game's official forums, producer and director Naoki Yoshida announced both the cancellation and the delay citing difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The North American Fan Festival was originally scheduled to take place this November in San Diego. However, Yoshida says that Square Enix is already looking into scheduling another event in North America in the first half of 2021. The events planned in Japan and Europe, in December and February respectively, are still planned but Square Enix is monitoring the situation.

As for the next major patch, 5.3, it will be delayed out from its original release date of June 16 due to the lowered productivity that comes with transitioning to work from home.

"If you consider our usual, pre-pandemic development production to be at 100%, we are currently sitting at around 85-90% capability," Yoshida said. "The missing 10% can be attributed to work-from-home network issues, reduced debug efficiency, and the general stresses of adjusting to this new work environment--a gap we mean to close as time goes on."

There is no new date for the update, but Yoshida said that it will be delayed at least a month. However, the team hopes to keep the delay as short as possible.