Final Fantasy XIV / Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

The original Final Fantasy XIV launched in 2010 to dismal reviews. It wasn’t just a poor launch, it was a poor everything.

The game was simply broken—so broken, in fact, that Square Enix quickly pulled it and began working on version 2.0.

Eventually this became the aptly titled Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. The newly made and newly branded MMORPG fixed most of its predecessor’s issues.

The problem?

A Realm Reborn was more popular than Square Enix anticipated. It had a “significantly higher number of players than anticipated” as it were.

When it launched in August 2013 the servers were quickly overwhelmed, and players were given a “try again later” message instead of a proper queue. Pretty soon Square Enix put a stop to digital sales and closed down character creation simply to keep the game running.

Being more popular than anticipated isn’t a bad thing on its face, but it’s actually a really common problem with launches and one that publishers ought to be prepared for. First impressions do matter.

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