Loads of people right now are working from home and staying inside playing games (including the Co-Optimus staff). MMO studios are in the same boat, meaning that we’ll see some delays in the coming weeks and months for content related to MMOs. At the same time, they’re doing their best to keep us entertained by offering their regularly scheduled events, which is always appreciated. This month, our MMOCO round-up includes some content delay announcements for FFXIV and ESO: Greymoor as well as an in-game event for STO.
FFXIV Announces Delays related to COVID-19
Last Friday, FFXIV’s Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida released a blog post to announce the impact that COVID-19 will have on upcoming FFXIV content patches. The most recent patch (5.25) was mostly complete before lockdown and state of emergency measures were put in place across the world, meaning that the team was able to release it on schedule. The next upcoming patch (5.3) will certainly be delayed, due to factors such as delayed graphical assets (from NA/EU, and East Asia) and delays to development tasks from Tokyo employees due to shelter-in-place/work-from-home impacts.
Previously slated for a mid-June release, it’s unclear currently whether patch 5.3 will be able to launch with only a delay of 2-3 weeks or if it will be closer to around a month late. Work is still being done on it, but on a longer timeline due to the limitations that manifest from working-from-home as opposed to in-person.