FFXIV Hammered by DDoS, FFXI Host Free Login Campaign. Coincidence? Maybe!

Final Fantasy XIV has been hammered by DDoS attacks as of late, making playing the game for the better part of the entire last week an unpleasant experience. Though not all instances of DDoS have been reported on the Lodestone, many NA raid groups that have been trying to clear the Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate), FFXIV's newest high-end fight, have been unable to progress due to constant disconnects and instances of lag. My own raid team got hampered as well, when we tried to progress in the fight.

In a bit of completely unrelated news, Final Fantasy XI has announced a "Return to Vana'diel" campaign, that will allow FFXI veterans to come back to the game, assuming they have been inactive since November 7th, 2017 - much more forgiving of a timeframe than FFXIV's usual 90 day "don't be subscribed" requirement. This comes with a sale on all FFXI expansions, and a plethora of new events for players to experience in FFXI, even as the game has fallen out of the public's eye in the past two years.

Is this a response to FFXIV's DDoS attacks, to try to get players of both games to forget about their XIV woes, and enjoy XI for a bit? It's hard to say. Usually campaigns and events such as these are planned weeks, if not months in advance. However, it is quite likely that Square Enix decided to accelerate the pace at which this event arrives.