Following the release of patch 5.3, game director Naoki Yoshida posted a blog summarizing his plans for the future of Final Fantasy 14. Version 5.3 significantly expands the free trial to include all of Heavensward. As a result, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, players have been staying home to play more and more, and space in Hydaelyn has been tight, creating a need for more in-game housing.

Space is not only an issue because more players are joining the game. Normally, to have a house in FF14, you need to log in every 30 days to make sure you don't lose it, but due to the economic impact of the pandemic, the development team recognized that many players would not be able to keep their subscriptions, so they suspended the demolition of housing. This, combined with the increase in new players, has made it increasingly difficult to obtain housing. In the real world, the only way to acquire more housing would be to add more servers, but the pandemic has made that difficult as well, so the focus is now shifting to optimizing existing servers instead.

"Given the difficulty of improving our data centers, the development team is doing what it can to further optimize our servers so that we can add as many housing plots as possible before the release of patch 5.4," Yoshida said.

"We will announce further news on these additions as soon as the timeline is finalized and the number that can be added is confirmed.

If you are a new player, it will be some time before the housing issue affects you.