Final Fantasy 14 restarts controversial housing demolition, to divided community response

A group of Final Fantasy 14 characters gather to watch the Old Sharlayan dock
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 14 devs have decided to resume the automatic demolition of housing estates in January 2023.

Announced just earlier today on December 16, the automatic demolition of housing for Final Fantasy 14 players will resume with patch 6.3, which is scheduled to launch in early January 2023. After initially being suspended back in December 2021, Square Enix has decided the time is finally nigh to resume the feature.

Square Enix writes that if you entered your housing while the suspension period was active (between December 2021 and now), your automatic demolition timer will be reset after patch 6.3. If you haven't entered your housing at all over the past year however, the timer will resume from the time that was left as of December 6, 2021.

If you want to check how long you have left until automatic demolition, head to the Estate tab of the Timers window to see the time remaining. All you need to do to reset the timer, and push it back, is to simply re-enter your housing estate at any point after patch 6.3.

This decision from Square Enix has seriously divided Final Fantasy 14 players. Some see it as an effective and reasonable solution to the ongoing housing crisis, whereby it's near-impossible to get housing lots due to the lack of them, while others are decrying it as a money-grabbing initiative from the company, and a heavy-handed approach to the problem.

If you're unaware, Final Fantasy 14 has been facing a serious housing crisis over the past few years due to the lack of new plots for players to purchase. There have even been problems with the lottery system for housing plots not working, for which game director Naoki Yoshida has apologized numerous times. It remains to be seen if this new measure will actually help the problem in the long term.

Final Fantasy 14 just teased a massive ripped goth girl as a boss, and players are already falling for them.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

Read more
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft calls out Final Fantasy 14's house lottery nightmare as Blizzard details Midnight's player housing: "No lotteries, and no onerous upkeep"
Final Fantasy 14 patch 7.2 Seekers of Eternity
Final Fantasy 14 gets its biggest post-Dawntrail patch yet in 7.2 next month, adding a new Savage tier, trials, Phantom Jobs, Cosmic Exploration, and more
Final Fantasy 14 patch 6.4 The Dark Throne
As the Final Fantasy 14 devs "continue to take a firm stance" against mods that can enable harassment, Yoshi-P says improvements are starting in patch 7.2
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail cinematic screenshot showing Alphinaud Leveilleur, an Elezen boy with short white hair
Final Fantasy 14's funniest speedrunning beef continues as runner who lost a world record to its original champ in just 1 day returns, beats record, is promptly dethroned again
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail screenshot featuring character Y'shtola Rhul, a Miqo'te woman with white hair framing her face and cat-like ears
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail helped players block stalkers, but the problem might get much worse with a backend exploit some mods are already taking advantage of
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition
Square Enix kills Final Fantasy game's mobile version after being unable to "completely fix" a bug stopping fans from accessing their additional paid content
Latest in Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail cinematic screenshot showing Alphinaud Leveilleur, an Elezen boy with short white hair
Final Fantasy 14's funniest speedrunning beef continues as runner who lost a world record to its original champ in just 1 day returns, beats record, is promptly dethroned again
Final Fantasy 7
Sony finally managed to pry Final Fantasy 7 away from Nintendo thanks to a "schmoozer" of a former employee who hung out with Square Enix executives at his parties, according to one former PlayStation boss
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition
Square Enix kills Final Fantasy game's mobile version after being unable to "completely fix" a bug stopping fans from accessing their additional paid content
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy creator says the original JRPG's programmer was "like a god" to him: "I still strongly feel that the core program itself is the ‘life’ of a game"
Final Fantasy 14 producer Yoshi-P interview's the series' founding father Hironobu Sakaguchi
After 3 years of playing Final Fantasy 14 "almost every single day," series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi reckons the MMO "might be the game that I've played the most in my life"
Final Fantasy 14 patch 6.4 The Dark Throne
As the Final Fantasy 14 devs "continue to take a firm stance" against mods that can enable harassment, Yoshi-P says improvements are starting in patch 7.2
Latest in News
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
5 years after starting development, Neil Druckmann says Naughty Dog's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "still evolving and changing as we're making it"
Silent Hill f
After 2 years of silence, the next mainline Silent Hill game is getting a dedicated stream this week with "the latest news"
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2