Same-Region Matching Starts this Fall. But There’s a Catch

If you’ve done group raiding FFXIV, you’ve probably had to deal with traveling between data centers. Data center travel can be a pain, and worst case you might not make it to the meetup server. Not to mention missing out on Free Company buffs, or slow matchmaking in duty roulettes. Fortunately, players might not have to deal with DC travel for much longer. Berlin FanFest gave us another preview on the incoming same-player region matching system.

One Region Will Get Same-Region Matching First

First teased at Anaheim, same-region player matching will group all data centers in a region together and facilitate matchmaking between them. It’s a massive win for less populated servers, as players there will no longer need to wait for overly long queue times. It also means those players won’t lose access to gathering nodes or retainers. And for people progging Savage and Ultimate in PF, it should mean an even easier time filling out a party, particularly with a hinted-at update to party finder search functionality. As a reminder, here’s what the current list of data centers per region:

Naturally same-region matching is a massive infrastructure project, and no initial launch date was set. But since Berlin Fanfest we have a firmer idea of the key dates.

The first region to receive same-player matching will be Japan Data Centers on October 12th, following 24-hour maintenance.

Afterwards, North America, China, and Europe will be upgraded once any bugs have been ironed out with the Japanese launch. Yoshi-P said they would have more details on dates in the near future. The more people that participate in the JP test, the quicker rollout will be to other regions. So, if you have the time, and the means, joining Elemental, Gaia, Mana, or Meteor could help the system roll out that much faster.

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