Last month, Square Enix released a free benchmark tool for players to test whether their setup can handle Dawntrail, the next major expansion for Final Fantasy XIV. Bringing with it the first major graphical update since the release of A Realm Reborn, these improved visuals may put some rigs to the test.
Unfortunately, many players felt that their characters lost their spark with the update, prompting the producer and director Naoki Yoshida to announce an update to the tool in the future. After weeks of silence, we now know that the updated benchmark tool will be released on June 3.
This is slightly delayed, as Yoshida initially said that the tool would launch in May.
“We are already in the final debugging phase, but on the first day of the final review, we discovered an issue that triggers instability within the software. We corrected the issue and are currently redoing the final review from scratch, which unfortunately put us behind schedule by a little over a day,” the director said in a blog post.
“Various environmental parameters (such as lighting, positioning of light sources, and weather for the environmental maps) have all been reconfigured to match the first round of graphical updates. These revisions have been applied to not only the benchmark, but the game itself from Dawntrail onwards as well.”
The Dawntrail expansion for Final Fantasy XIV will be released on July 2, but players preordering the expansion will be able to play a few days early on June 28. The long-awaited release will bring with it a level cap boost from 90 to 100, a new playable race, two new DPS classes, new cities, new dungeons and raids, a new limited job, and an entirely new story arc.
Final Fantasy XIV is available to play on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The MMO was fully released on Xbox Series X/S on March 21.
