Following the horrific destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, Final Fantasy XIV has suspended automatic housing demolitions across its North American servers. Several states have been impacted, with hundreds of thousands of people still without power since the storm made landfall in late September.
Typically, players who don’t set foot in their homes in Final Fantasy XIV for at least 45 days will have their lodgings permanently demolished. This frees up space for other players trying to get housing, one of the hottest commodities in the popular MMO.
“From all of us on the FFXIV development and management team, our hearts go out to those who were affected late last month by Hurricane Helene in North America,” a post on the Lodestone reads. “Due to the damages and other factors, we have decided to temporarily suspend the automatic demolition of estates.”
The timer was suspended today, October 2. Whenever the auto demolition timer is switched back on, it will resume from wherever it was prior to the suspension.
“It is our sincere hope that recovery is swift, and those of you who were affected will be able to rejoin us in FFXIV soon,” the post concludes.
This week, Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida and community producer Toshio Murouchi hosted the FFXIV Live Letter 83, sharing everything coming in the 7.1 update. Titled ‘Crossroads,’ the update will add new main scenario quests, as well as the first high-difficulty 24-player Alliance Raid.
Fans of Final Fantasy XI will also be pleased to see the first part of a crossover Alliance Raid series with the title, which was Square Enix’s first MMO and was released in 2002.
Final Fantasy XIV is available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The Dawntrail expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, released on July 2, boosted the max level from 90 to 100 and added a new playable race, two new DPS classes, new cities, new dungeons and raids, a new limited job, and an entirely new story arc.