It’s been over 10 years since Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn came around, and since then, we’ve seen it drop its support on many platforms—2016’s PS3 drop was particularly felt by the fans. And while we’re not there yet, it might be that PlayStation 4’s time with the game is nearing its end.
At least, that’s what Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, the game’s director, has implied in his latest interview with Tweaktown. In it, the longtime Final Fantasy XIV leader has recognized that Sony’s last-gen platform is already showing signs of a major slowdown, what with its technical limitations and outdated hardware and operating system.
However, Yoshi-P has stated that he wants to extend Final Fantasy XIV’s support for “as long as possible”. The only problem is: that’s not up to him.
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According to Yoshida, the latest difficulty pertains to the PlayStation 4 operating system, which has imposed regulations on data limit usage. The Square Enix game developer said that the publisher is working with Sony to make these regulations more flexible specifically for Final Fantasy XIV, which they have been doing so far.
Yoshida dedicates a good chunk of the interview praising Sony, even, but he stated that even the manufacturer is reaching its own limits, implying that the end of support is no longer a matter of “want”, but a matter of “need”, as in Sony coming around and saying “we made the damn thing and even we can no longer maintain it.”
“These regulations are related to the limit of the data, and because there’s that limit of the data, well, we are continually incorporating updates for Final Fantasy 14 and we are now approaching that limit. “And so for this limit that’s in place, we have been asking Sony Interactive Entertainment from our side to increase that just for Final Fantasy 14, and they have kindly been doing that so far. But they’ve told us now that they are also reaching their limits. So I will repeat myself: I do want to provide support for platforms as long as possible.”
Naoki Yoshida, on Final Fantasy XIV’s PS4 support
In other words: although you can still play Final Fantasy XIV on PlayStation 4, it might be a smart idea to start looking at other options—either an upgrade to PlayStation 5 or a beefed up gaming PC, in this case.
Losing support is nothing new, of course, and there is no reason to think that the PlayStation 4 would be any different: recently, HoYoVerse confirmed that its mega hit Genshin Impact will cease its own support for Sony’s last-gen console between next month and next year—deprecation (the “phase out” part) starts September 10, while the full, complete shutdown will come on April 8, 2026. Besides Genshin, another major hit recently taken by the PS4 is PUBG: Battlegrounds, which Krafton has confirmed will lose support on November 13.
As for Final Fantasy XIV, its most recent expansion—Dawntrail—was released last year for the PS4 among other platforms. There are other expansions and content updates further down Square Enix’s pipeline, but since none of them have a set release date, it might be the case of the older console not getting them unless they come sooner rather than later.
