Final Fantasy 14’s new expansion stays far away from the Elden Ring DLC

Final Fantasy 14 Online‘s next expansion, the summer vacation adventure Dawn trail, will officially launch on July 2, producer and director Naoki Yoshida announced on Sunday. Early access to Dawn trail goes live on June 28 for players who pre-ordered the expansion.

Yoshida announced Final Fantasy 14: Dawn Trail‘s release date on PAX East during a panel which revisited the history of the online role-playing game and the journey to its new expansion. He noted that Square Enix wanted to start early access Dawn trail a week earlier, but “we thought everyone would be interested in seeing the Elden Ring DLC,” Shadow of the Erdtreewhich will be launched on June 21st. Yoshida’s announcement was met with laughter from the audience, who were no doubt well aware of the highly anticipated releases of both add-ons.

“I’ll give you a week!” Yoshida said with a smile, “Enjoy it Elden Ring DLC, then just go into your summer holidays Dawn trail.” He added: “I just want to make it clear, it’s not because I wants to play Elden Ring DLC and then play Dawn trailalthough I’m looking forward to it.”

Elden RingThe game’s original release in 2022 coincided with the launch of another large-scale open-world game, Horizon Forbidden West. The sequel to Guerrilla Game Horizon zero dawn was released a week earlier Elden Ringand FromSoftware’s game dominated the discourse at the time, leading to a more muted response to Forbidden West. (The Horizon sequel’s sales are about a third of its predecessor’s, Sony says.) Square Enix apparently wants to avoid a similar fate with Final Fantasy 14: Dawn Trail this summer.

Final Fantasy 14: Dawn Trail gives players of the MMO a brand new story, two new playable courses (Pictomancer and Viper), new dungeons and encounters, and an increased level cap to 100. For more, catch up on Yoshida’s Final fantasy 14 panel from PAX East 2024 in the video below.