With wildfires blazing in the Los Angeles area, the team behind Final Fantasy 14 has made a compassionate decision to pause the game’s automatic housing demolition feature on North American servers. This thoughtful move ensures that players impacted by the fires, who might find it difficult to log in amidst the chaos, won’t lose their cherished digital homes.
On the evening of January 9th, precisely at 8:20 p.m. PT, the countdown for auto-demolition was halted across the Aether, Crystal, Dynamis, and Primal data centers. The developers are keeping a close eye on the evolving scenario in Southern California before deciding when to restart it. Typically, players risk losing their virtual homes after 45 days of inactivity due to high housing demand among the game’s community.
In a heartfelt statement, Square Enix expressed, “From all of us on the Final Fantasy 14 development and management team, our hearts go out to those who were affected by the mountain fires around Los Angeles. We sincerely hope that recovery is swift and that those impacted can rejoin us in FF14 soon.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, the wildfires have claimed at least 10 lives, forced over 100,000 people to evacuate, destroyed 9,000 structures, and scorched tens of thousands of acres. For those willing and able to help the affected, the LA Times has compiled an extensive list of organizations accepting donations.
