There's also the issue of Sony's publisher fee for cross-play gaming, which would likely negatively impact Square Enix's bottom line. Right now, all content sold through the Microsoft Store right now has to also feed updates through the Microsoft Store, whereas Square Enix prefers to handle updates to its game manually. Relaxed Microsoft Store policies with regards to content delivery networks due to arrive this year should rectify this, however. In the past, Xbox head Phil Spencer has said that FFXIV was heading to Microsoft's console too, but it sadly has never materialized. It does seem like this upsurge in popularity has taken the publisher by surprise a bit, which isn't exactly without precedent, given how utterly over-loaded Outriders was at launch. Every server is listing itself as 'congested' as of writing, effectively implying the servers have become full. Some of my friends that have tried to pick up the game were also unable to make new characters on my server, greeted with a 'this server is full' message, as Square Enix attempts to distribute load among its data centers. I've been playing the game a fair amount recently, and noticed that even off-peak hours I am greeted with server queues.
Final Fantasy XIV has had such an upsurge in popularity that the game is sold out on the Square Enix storefront so you cannot buy a digital copy and you cannot create new characters on NA servers.
