After months of struggle, Final Fantasy 14 is finally opening the Oceania data center it has been trying to create. To foster its growth, Final Fantasy 14 is offering incentives to players who create new characters or transfer existing ones to the Oceania data center’s new worlds–Bismarck, Ravana, Sephirot, Sophia, and Zurvan.
Last year, Final Fantasy 14 announced the Oceania data center, with a planned release in February 2022 after several delays. In spite of the previous delays, the Oceania data center, called ‘Materia’, is opening on January 25th–two weeks earlier than its original release date.
Materia opens simultaneously with the resuming of sales of Final Fantasy 14. To incentivize players to join the new data center, and to migrate from existing ones, the critically-acclaimed MMORPG is offering special rewards and boosts for those who do. New players will receive 10 silver Chocobo feathers, which can be exchanged for powerful leveling gear, and double experience until level 80 for making a character, plus 1,000,000 gil and 15 days of free play time for reaching level 30.
Existing characters receive the same Road to 80 experience boost, and transfer to the new data center is free. However, these characters will also get 10 gold Chocobo feathers–normally only available through the Friend Referral program–instead of silver, which can be exchanged for exclusive mounts.
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The delay in the data center’s creation was caused by the national shortage of semiconductors from COVID-19 and the boom in cryptocurrency mining operations. Final Fantasy 14’s meteoric rise over 2021 And the launch of its massively-successful Endwalker DLC, sped up its plans for expansion significantly, necessitating the creation of the data center to help ease the server congestion which caused it to freeze sales in December.
Many are relieved to see Final Fantasy 14 completed Materia. Few will be upset to see Endwalker’s hours-long login queues and server congestion go away, nor that new players can play again. The generous incentives for world transfers, even including gil compensation for players with houses or private rooms, have even convinced many players to consider leaving their old worlds behind for the new ones.
Of course, completing this data center meant Final Fantasy 14 players from across the globe began asking where the next data center would be. With players in South America, many hope the next one will be in Brazil. Though it has not announced any other new data centers yet, Final Fantasy 14 has outlined its plans to expand existing ones.
Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker is currently live on PC, PS4, and PS5, and will be available for purchase on January 25th.
Source: Final Fantasy XIV