FF14 has a major DDoS problem as attacks occur almost daily

At the moment, Final Fantasy 14 has a major DDoS problem. The server attacks have been going on for years, but in the last few weeks their frequency has increased massively. We've had several attacks in the last few days that forced players to disconnect. Square Enix may not have said anything about it recently, but more and more players are starting to voice their frustration. Hopefully we'll hear from Yoshida and the team soon.

If you're not familiar with it, a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is an attack where a third party attempts to disrupt traffic and connectivity to a server. The server becomes overloaded with traffic and essentially shuts down under the strain. In Final Fantasy 14, this means that players are suddenly logged out of the game and find it difficult to log back in until the DDoS attack ends. When playing an always-online MMORPG, it's easy to see why this can become a major problem.

Since early 2024, these DDoS attacks have been sporadic, with an average of two weeks to months between them, according to Lodestone. They can take down either the North American, European, Oceania, or Japanese data centers, in any combination. Long-time gamers will remember the particularly bad Stormblood DDoS attacks in 2017, with an even worse spate of disconnections occurring in 2014.

In recent weeks, however, DDoS attacks have become particularly frequent, with The Lodestone reporting six separate attacks in the past four weeks and three since Wednesday, September 18. Square Enix reiterates that it is “investigating the attack and taking countermeasures,” but adds that it will “continue to monitor the situation and work with ISPs on solutions.”

The high concentration of DDoS attacks is not going down well with Final Fantasy 14 players; the game's forums and subreddits are full of players reacting to the disconnections. I've been incredibly lucky, never getting disconnected in the middle of a dungeon and even having a smooth launch of Dawntrail. But I'm the exception, not the rule.

FF14 director Naoki Yoshida addressed the ongoing DDoS attacks earlier this year, saying, “This is the largest scale and duration” since the game's release. “I am confident because we have not seen any critical damage so far, so Square Enix will continue to work diligently to protect ourselves from the DDoS attacks,” Yoshida added in the May 2024 livestream.

I know DDoS attacks are incredibly difficult to combat, but I hope Yoshida and Square Enix make the FF14 community aware of the problem soon. Disconnections aren't going away, of course, but DDoSing has become so common that something needs to be done.

Since DDoS attacks are a constant occurrence, be sure to stay updated on Final Fantasy 14 server status and maintenance times. If you're still in Tural, we have all the current Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Aether locations.

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