FF14 version 7.0 is already on the horizon, and MMO gamers are super excited. The fifth expansion pack is set to launch in Summer 2024. With it, a ton of new content is headed to the game. There’s always the new Jobs, quests and bosses to fight your way through. But on the more technical side of things, a lot is actually changing.
One addition that might sour some moods though is a bit unexpected. There’s a plan to update the underlying technical requirements for playing the game to bring the expected baseline experience in line with modern hardware. The push to bring MMOs into a more beautiful and technically polished state should pay dividends over the coming years, especially as gamers grow in their expectation of technical prowess in games. So seeing FF14 head in that direction is ultimately a good thing. The team is hard at work on a graphical upgrade that will do just that. This change will apply when FF14 version 7.0 brings Dawntrail to the table, but eventually to all existing content as well.
This isn’t something that’s all too unexpected to those paying attention. Square Enix already axed the PS3 version some time ago back in 2017, and later revisions of the MMO, ended support for 32-bit Windows operating systems and DirectX 9 rendering libraries. This was clearly a plan to always keep the MMORPG moving forward, as the team worked to add new and polished features to Final Fantasy XIV. It’s worth noting that Yoshida did clarify that the PS4 version would remain supported for the time being, so no need to panic on that front.
Here’s a quick screenshot from a presentation for FF14 Fanfest that revealed the details of the technical switch.
For those of you on the low end, things aren’t too bad. The RX 480 was out in 2016, and the GTX 970 is even more ancient, coming out all the way back in 2014. If you can run any game made in the last 5 or so years at 60 FPS, you should be fine to run FF14.
- OS: Windows 10 64 bit, Windows 11 64 bit
- CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 or higher
- Memory: 8GB
- Available HDD/SSD space: 140GB or more on HDD
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or higher, AMD Radeon RX 480 or higher
- Screen Resolution: 1280 x 720
To run the game with recommended settings, the specs listed below are the goal:
- OS: Windows 10 64 bit, Windows 11 64 bit
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9700 or higher
- Memory: 16GB
- Available HDD/SSD space: 140GB or more on SSD
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or higher, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT or higher
- Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Again, this will eventually apply to the entire game, so now is the time to prepare. And speaking of existing content, there’s another bit of good news for new players coming with Dawntrail. The already expansive free trial, which includes the first expansion, will be updated to include Stormblood as well. When combined with the revamped new player experience, new players will get two full expansions worth of content for free, pretty great.
And frankly, with more than a year to prepare, most PC gamers should be fine with securing an upgrade if needed in the coming months.
