Final Fantasy 14 Mobile Officially Shuts Down Today

Final Fantasy 14 Mobile officially shuts down today, ending the China-exclusive MMORPG's run just a year after its launch.

The mobile version was originally planned for a global release, but Square Enix announced in July that it had terminated its licensing agreement with Tencent. As a result, the Chinese version was scheduled to be sunset on September 30, while the planned global release was canceled outright. “We offer our sincere apologies for being unable to meet your expectations,” Square Enix said in a statement earlier this year.

As for what that looks like today: game servers and the official website have been shut down, and players can no longer log in. In the coming weeks, on October 15, forums and dedicated support will also be closed.

Two players riding a mount in Final 14 Fantasy Mobile.

Square Enix explained that it had terminated its agreement with Tencent after amicable negotiations “due to adjustments in business operations and changes in the market environment.” However, it did not elaborate on what those changes were.

Some have speculated that the game was performing poorly in China, given the country's incredibly competitive mobile market. This may have dampened Square Enix's expectations for the global launch, but again, this is only speculation.

The game was blasted for its free-to-play monetization before it had even launched.

The cancellation is particularly interesting because the global release had already been in development for some time. Final Fantasy 14 Mobile wasn't simply a scaled-down port of the existing MMO, either. The game was rebuilt around touchscreen controls, and introduced several changes to combat, progression, customization, and other systems to make Eorzea more suitable for mobile players.

Square Enix had also planned to use the Chinese release as a testing ground before bringing the game to other regions, meaning the version that shut down today wasn't necessarily what Western players would have experienced. With the licensing agreement now terminated, however, we'll never get to see how those plans would have evolved.