The highly anticipated expansion Endwalker launched last week for Final Fantasy XIV, and so far enthusiasm for the popular online RPG has exceeded server capacity. And then some. From long wait times to jump in, to players playing longer sessions, Square Enix is taking some drastic measures to try and get things a little more stable.

As per the headline it's putting a temporary stop on all digital sales of the game, alongside new Free Trials. On that front existing Free Trial players are being restricted to late-night or early morning hours -- with subscribers being prioritised in the queue. Square Enix is also suspending all new advertisements for the game, as to not drum up any more hype.

It's a strange situation, what do you do if your online game is too popular?

"To those who have been invited by their friends and family who have been considering joining, as well as our retail partners, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and ask for your understanding and cooperation in order to reduce congestion," writes Naoki Yoshida, Producer & Director of Final Fantasy XIV. "We will continue to monitor the situation as we consider the timing around resuming sales."

Existing players will be compensated with game time as the team sorts through the issues, 14 days in total. Naoki Yoshida notes that the team is indeed looking to add more servers, but due to the recent pandemic and hardware shortages this has been a slow process. For local players Oceanic servers are slated to go live February 2022 which should help those playing Australia.

Head here for the full post.