FFXIV Dawntrail Release Date – What We Learned at PAX East

Here is everything we learned about Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail including its Release Date from PAX East.

We’re all ready for a vacation and with Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail on the horizon, director and producer Naoki Yoshida gave a long-winded presentation on the upcoming expansion at PAX East 2024.

During that presentation, he talked not just about the past of the critically acclaimed MMORPG but its future. Yoshida gave us an idea of what FFXIV is going to look like in the next 10 years, as well as when we can expect the expansion to land. We have all the details right here, short and summary.

Image: Square Enix

FFXIV Dawntrail Release Date
We finally have an official release date for Dawntrail. The expansion was officially released on July 2, 2024, on all platforms. Early Access will start on June 28, 2024, for everyone who has preordered the expansion.

According to Naoki Yoshida, he simply wanted to enjoy the Elden Ring Expansion “Shadow of the Erdtree” a week before launch.

With the release date, Square Enix also announced the collectors and digital collectors edition. More information on those will be available pretty soon. Preorders start on March 26, 2024. Keep in mind that the Steam release has its own preorder process available.

Preordering the game will give players access to the Wind-Up Zidane Minon and the Azeyma’s Earring which will give owners a 30% level boost up to level 90.

Image: Square Enix
FFXIV Dawntrail is Changing the Game
During the presentation, a big point was to shake up the FFXIV is played while increasing the current offering of content. While Endwalker focussed more on casual, solo content. Dawntrail will hone in on group content instead.

There was also talk of increasing the volume of content available. Going forward, the MMORPG will introduce up to 1.5x as much content compared to previous patches.

They also talked about upgrading the battle system to keep things fresh. While Yoshida didn’t go into detail about how things would shake up this time, he emphasized that players should be encouraged to come up with their own strategies.

How this will end up in the full release, is still anyone’s guess. But we expect encounters in 7.0 onwards to be a lot less nonlinear compared to the current type of fight. Yoshida said that they are currently trying to evolve and change the current system so they have a more versatile base to build on top of for the next 10 to 20 years.

Final Fantasy 16 Collaboration Event Release Date
As mentioned yesterday during the Final Fantasy 16 panel, the Crossover event will start on April 2, 2024, and will be available for about a month. Here players will be able to play through a special questline which allows players to earn FF16-themed goodies. More information on this special quest will be available shortly.

Image: Square Enix
More to Come
The Media Tour for Dawntrail is expected to start in May when more information will be made available. There is also another Letter from the Producer Live which takes place in April, which will focus on the graphical update, together with live footage from the game.

We also expect to see the Job Action trailer, showing off all the updates to existing classes as well as the Benchmark test which will allow players to test their machines against the new hardware requirements and toy around in the updated character creator.

We’ll have of course much more on Dawntrail as we approach the release and if you’re still hungry for more on FFXIV, please check out our dedicated section for guides, news, and more here on ESTNN

Has once claimed that FSH is the only job in FFXIV worth playing and stands by that firmly. Top Guy, Smart Guy, Educated Speaker. (sometimes)
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