The Final Fantasy 14 team has announced the specific launch date for Dawntrail, its latest expansion, for July 2nd, with a June 28th early release launch.
Already, a summer 2024 date was first announced at the first Fan Festival in Last Vegas this past July. However, we weren’t given a specific date until now, at the PAX East panel this weekend in Boston.
At the panel, director Naoki Hoshida explained that they wanted to have it a week earlier, but the Elden Ring DLC is scheduled for the week before, so they pushed it back.
“We’ll give you one week!” he joked to the crowd. Or maybe joking? That Elden Ring DLC is serious business.
Thankfully, it’s rare that the FFXIV team deviates far from a release date, even for patches. Still, when the last expansion, Endwalker, was released late, it was pushed back only two weeks. It was far from the month or few many other developers tend to give, though the changes came far too close for comfort for many players, especially those who took those days off for the launch (and frustrating for those who couldn’t get into the game thanks to long queue times).
Pre-orders will come with early access on the June 28th date plus some small items, as usual. This time around, it’s the Wind-up Zidane Minion (from Final Fantasy IX, as well as the Azeyma’s Earrings. Similar to Menphina’s Earrings, it gives a 30% EXP boost as well as a stat adjustment for characters level 90 and below.
Collector’s bonuses were announced for the release as well. It’ll come with the Ark mount, a Chocobo Brush for Pictomancer, and a wind-up Garnet Minion, featuring the character from Final Fantasy IX who originated the Pictomancer party role.
The physical collector’s items were also shown off during the panel on the stage. It’ll include a figure of the default character as the new Viper class, an updated cloth map of the world, “The Unending Journey” as a blank journal, a pen case with a design on faux leather, and a custom box.
Dawntrail looks to integrate many of the old cast members of FFXIV while promising a fresh adventure in the new region of “Tural,” explicitly explained as being inspired by South American cultures as well as others. Endwalker officially wrapped up the prior overarching storyline, and Dawntrail is meant to start the new one.
