Final Fantasy 14's housing demolition timer has once again been suspended by Square Enix, this time due to the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake that's seen at least 21,000 people die.
The suspension only affects players on the Chaos and Light data centres, Europe's collection of servers. Players on servers across the American, Japanese and Oceanic data centres still have the housing demolition timer in place.
"From all of us on the FF14 development and management team, our hearts go out to those who were affected by the massive earthquake that occurred in southeastern Turkey on Monday, February 6," a post on The Lodestone read. "Due to the damages and other factors, we have decided to temporarily suspend the automatic demolition of estates."
The MMORPG is home to a rather bizarre housing system. Nothing is instanced—on the one hand, it's great being able to stroll through neighbourhoods and see everyone's intricately designed houses and front yards. On the other hand, it's created a huge shortage and a rather cutthroat market.
To try and keep the availability of housing flowing, Final Fantasy 14 usually automatically demolishes a house if the owner fails to access it within 45 days. That's the timer that's been suspended for the time being and will resume once Square Enix reactivates the auto-demolition counter. As for when that'll be? The Lodestone post says the team "will monitor the situation in the coming days" and will announce when auto-demolition recommences.
Notices : EU: Temporary Suspension of Automatic Housing Demolition https://t.co/VAS1ddHj8L #FFXIVFebruary 9, 2023
Housing demolition has spent a good chunk of the last few years suspended. It was originally put on hold back when the Covid-19 pandemic first struck in March 2020, continuing until December of that year. It was then suspended again shortly after the release of Endwalker due to heavy congestion. It was set to be resumed in March 2022 but, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, those plans were cancelled. The suspension was finally lifted on January 10 this year "after careful consideration."
If you wish to donate to help those affected by the earthquakes, you can do so through the Red Cross, DEC or Oxfam.
