New Release Date For Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.3 Announced

final fantasy xiv reflections in crystal bannerFinal Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida reveals the new release date for Patch 5.3 – Reflections of Crystal in his latest Letter from the Producer. The patch was originally scheduled to go live in mid-June but was delayed as the dev and QA teams adjusted to the new working conditions brought about by the pandemic.

“We did everything we could to try and release this update at some point in mid-July, but in the end, we determined more time was needed to thoroughly test and debug the next alliance raid of YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse and the new large-scale encounters of the resistance weapons content.

This matter was complicated by the fact that, due to the size of our QA teams, and the nature of the testing required of them, working in the office could not be avoided. Preparing a working environment in the office that adhered to social distancing guidelines and regulations required more time, resulting in this two-month delay.”

Yoshida says that they’ve securely established their remote working system and are planning to return to their regular three-and-a-half-month update cadence after the release of Patch 5.3. Unfortunately, the two-month delay in getting the patch out means that the initial schedule for the succeeding updates will also have to be adjusted.

“Were we to try and accelerate our schedule from Patch 5.4 onwards, it would only result in cutting content and sacrificing the quality of our work─and given the serialized nature of FFXIV’s story,” says Yoshida. “It is important that we keep to our original roadmap in terms of number and quality of major patches. But rather than think of this as a loss, I consider it a great accomplishment, as our staff can now work safely and efficiently both at home or at the office. What’s more, I believe we can make up for this delay with the quality of future patches and our coming expansion.”

He also confirmed that they’re working on a new expansion which will probably one of the topics that will come up in the next Letter from the Producer LIVE episode on Wednesday, July 22nd.

Patch 5.3 is scheduled to roll out on August 11th. Head over to the Final Fantasy XIV official forums for more details.