Final Fantasy 14 managed to turn itself around many years ago, moving from being an outright failure to a huge success for Square Enix. Its popularity continues to be demonstrated today as the newest expansion nears its release, but unfortunately, many players are now discovering that they can't access the game at all.

Technically, Final Fantasy 14's Shadowbringers expansion won't fully launch for a few days yet. However, players are still eagerly queuing up for a chance to access the Shadowbringers early access period. Unfortunately, many players are now discovering that they're unable to play the game due to lobby error 5006.

Lobby error 5006 has not specifically been explained by Square Enix. However, it's likely due to a combination of issues currently facing the game. There's currently a crush of players trying to access the game to prepare their characters for the new expansion's release. In addition, those who pre-ordered are also eligible to access the expansion as part of the early access campaign. Final Fantasy 14 has struggled with early access periods in the past, and it seems this time is no different.

Furthermore, Square Enix has revealed that the servers for Final Fantasy 14 are currently being subjected to a DDoS attack, which has troubled the MMORPG before. With these combined factors, it's highly likely that players will encounter a problem if they try to log on between now and when the expansion officially launches, July 2nd.

As of now, there is no official advice for bypassing or avoiding this issue. However, some players have found success in using the Cross World feature. This allows players to swap to a different server. This can be achieved by clicking on the central aetheryte in or Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, or Ul’dah and then selecting a different server to swap to.

It's exciting time to be a Final Fantasy 14 player, even with the current server issues. Sadly, those will likely get worse once the expansion releases, as players who haven't been actively playing in recent time will surely want to get in on the new content. There's good reason for the hype, though, as the expansion will add new jobs Gunbreaker and Dancer to unlock, new races to try, and a myriad of new content and areas to explore.

Final Fantasy 14 is available now for PC and PS4.

Source: Twinfinite