Hello, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV. Firstly, I would like to thank the community for their supportive comments following the recent Letter from the Producer LIVE.

During the broadcast, I spoke about the additional systems we will be introducing in relation to the Forked Tower. We have since decided to implement a portion of these updates in advance, during an emergency maintenance on all Worlds. Please allow me to summarize the details and explain our reasoning behind this decision.

Planned Changes

The following changes will be introduced as part of the emergency maintenance:

1. The ability to enter the Occult Crescent instance with a preformed alliance of up to 48 players
2. Allowing auroral mirages to generate sooner after the Occult Crescent instance has loaded

Intentions Behind the Changes

As stated during the PLL, the update required to improve the Forked Tower experience would comprise several key elements:

1. The ability to enter the Occult Crescent instance with a preformed alliance of up to 48 players
2. Allowing auroral mirages to generate sooner after the Occult Crescent instance has loaded
3. Improvements to the cipher offering UI
4. Delaying auroral mirage generation until an active critical encounter has ended

And further down the line, after additional deliberation and discussion, we plan on further expanding the system with updates, such as:

5. Enabling exclusive access to the Occult Crescent instance for a set time when joining with a preformed alliance

We believe these combined changes will function in unison to improve the Forked Tower experience. However, given the outsized impact of 1., even in isolation, we have chosen to prioritize its implementation. Furthermore, to alleviate the issue of players waiting for prolonged periods to access the Forked Tower due to the time taken for an auroral mirage to generate after the Occult Crescent instance loads, we will also be implementing 2. in advance.

The remaining changes listed above will be implemented in Patch 7.3, as previously discussed, along with other minor adjustments and updates. Please accept my apologies for the delay.

Risks Associated with Early Implementation

At present, fundamental implementation for Patch 7.3 is complete, and we have entered the adjustment and refinement phase for graphical elements, systems, and battle mechanics. In parallel, we are proceeding with large-scale QA in preparation for release. To avoid significant impact on this schedule, we had initially planned to implement changes 1. and 2. in Patch 7.3.

However, when evaluating our development and QA capacity to release a potential emergency maintenance update, it became apparent we would be able to do so with minimal effect to our schedule. Rest assured that there will be no impact on the release of Patch 7.3 as a result of this advance update.

It should be noted that the planned emergency maintenance update may introduce some technical issues. However, we determined that the benefits of implementing these changes in a timely manner outweigh the minor risks involved and will do our utmost to ensure the update is released in a stable state.

The current release schedule for the update is as follows:

Thursday, July 3, 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter

Although we are aiming for a July 3 release, this may be pushed back, should additional testing be required to ensure stability. Once the schedule has been confirmed, we will make a separate announcement via the Lodestone.

We ask for your patience while we work on these improvements and thank you for your continued support!

Naoki Yoshida

FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer & Director