Final Fantasy 14 Remains Target of Persistent DDoS Attacks

Final Fantasy 14 has remained firmly in the crosshairs of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, as three of these incidents occurred within a week on the North American servers. Final Fantasy 14 players took to social media to share what happened as an attack occurred and vent their frustrations at the attackers and Square Enix.

In short, a DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt a server by flooding it with fake traffic that can cause the target server to overload and either crash or suffer degraded performance. One method of DDoS attack is conducted by a single attacker that uses a network of compromised computers, also called a botnet, that is commanded to flood a target with a massive amount of spoofed login attempts to deny service to legitimate users. Though the target server’s host can take different methods to mitigate a DDoS attack, there is no foolproof solution. Ergo, players of online games like Final Fantasy 14 have to be patient during an attack in progress.

Though this is not the first time Final Fantasy 14 has endured a DDoS attack during Dawntrail, that has not stopped players from venting their frustrations. On the r/ffxiv subreddit, a user named Advarrk posted a screenshot of a dungeon run interrupted by a DDoS attack that took place early on September 23. According to a Lodestone post, the attack was detected around 1:00 AM Eastern, after most North American players logged out for the night. In their screenshot, three players from Advarrk’s late-night dungeon party were disconnected from the servers, as indicated by the red icon to the left of the blurred-out names. Other Reddit users chimed in with their DDoS attack experiences. While some said they had not been disconnected, others claimed their raid nights were interrupted by several members getting booted from the servers during a DDoS attack. The ongoing wave in Final Fantasy 14 saw three separate incidents occur since September 18.

Final Fantasy 14 DDoS Attacks Remain Persistent

• Final Fantasy 14 experienced three separate DDoS attacks since September 18.
• The attacks have occurred randomly, and the North American servers have been caught in the crossfire.
• Due to the flood of false traffic, players have experienced disconnections and high latency.
• Players shared their experiences and frustration as the DDoS attack wave continues.

Although the DDoS attacks remain a persistent problem, it is not the first technical incident to strike Final Fantasy 14. In the spring of 2023, Final Fantasy 14 players reported severe lag that rendered the game unplayable for users on ISPs such as AT&T. However, some affected players used a virtual private network (VPN) as a temporary workaround while Square Enix investigated the matter.

With Final Fantasy 14 set to take the stage at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show, players remain hopeful that plans to deal with the ongoing DDoS will be brought up. It remains to be seen how Square Enix will ease players’ concerns.