Final Fantasy 14 is currently the target of waves of DDoS attacks on its servers, causing players to disconnect from the game at seemingly random intervals. Ongoing DDoS attacks on Final Fantasy 14 are primarily concentrated in the North American Aether, Primal, Crystal, and Dynamis data centers at the time of writing.
In short, a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal operation of a server by suddenly sending a flood of traffic to it. This is often done using a network of “bots” made up of several devices, servers or computers that flood the target with fake requests or packets of information. A single attacker can then control the botnet through a dedicated command server to overwhelm the target with information and cause problems for legitimate users. There is no known way to make a server completely immune to a DDoS attack, although games like Final Fantasy 14 can moderate traffic from the botnet.
North American Final Fantasy 14 servers targeted by DDoS attack
Although it's not the first time Final Fantasy 14 facing a DDoS attack, the ongoing wave is causing problems for players in specific data centers. On Final Fantasy 14 subreddit, several users reported that the North American data centers of Aether, Crystal, Dynamis, and Primal were experiencing disconnections and errors due to the attacks. The attacks began on Monday, November 3rd and temporarily subsided before resuming on Tuesday, November 4th at approximately 11:24 PM ET. Final Fantasy 14 players took to social media to confirm whether other players had been disconnected from the game, and some noted the times when the disconnection occurred. These attacks continued on 4 November until the early hours of 5 November. At the time of writing, the latest wave of DDoS attacks hit North American servers at 1:40 PM ET.
Players in Europe, Japan and Oceania are seemingly unaffected by the ongoing DDoS attack on Final Fantasy 14. Although Square Enix issued a brief response late on November 4, the situation remains unresolved at the time of writing. The attacks came just a few weeks later Final Fantasy 14 launched content update 7.35, which introduced the deep dungeon Pilgrim's Traverse and the crossover event with Monster Hunter Wilds.
However, the DDoS attack caused players to lose progress in Pilgrim's Traverse, as disconnecting during a solo run will cause it to be lost. WITH Final Fantasy 14 in preparation for December's 7.4 update, it remains to be seen how Square Enix will respond to the attacks moving forward.
- Released
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August 27, 2013
- ESRB
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T for Teens – Language, Mild Blood, Sexual Themes, Alcohol Use, Violence
- Engine
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Originally a Crystal Tools engine, but currently a custom engine using Luminous Engine parts.
