Final Fantasy 14’s next expansion, Dawntrail, will launch in early access on June 28th and then release in full on July 2nd. Producer Yoshi P announced the date onstage at PAX East, while acknowledging the release date’s proximity to another RPG: Elden Ring’s Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion, which releases on June 21st.
After announcing the release date, Yoshi-P said that he and the team initially had wanted to release it a week earlier. “Elden Ring DLC,” he added, after a pause.
“We figured everyone would be interested in playing the Elden Ring DLC,” said the producer via a translator. “I’ll give you one week. I’ll give you one week to enjoy the Elden Ring DLC and then just go into your summer vacation into Dawntrail.
“I just want to make it clear, it’s not because I want to play Elden Ring DLC and then play Dawntrail,” he added, laughing. “Although I am looking forward to it.” An archive of the moment can be found on YouTube.
I’m not going to pretend I know much of anything about Final Fantasy 14 or Final Fantasy more generally. You’ll need Matt for those deep lore connections. I do like it when game developers aren’t afraid to acknowledge other games, however, and it’s something Yoshi-P does a lot, as when he talks about being a fan of Blizzard and wanting to do a Diablo crossover. I like that he likes games.