I wasn’t expecting Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida to directly call out World of Warcraft during a media Q&A at the MMO’s Berlin Fan Festival, but that’s exactly what happened.
When asked about how the team plans to modernise Final Fantasy 14’s housing system—one which is regularly criticised for a lack of supply to meet demand and a fairly obtuse UI to boot—Yoshida’s first response was: “I get the feeling that what you really want to ask is, well WoW has come up with this amazing housing system. How about [Final Fantasy] 14?”
Blizzard’s own MMO has finally taken its first stab at player housing, and I do admit I’ve been looking on with some envy. It looks far easier to wield and far more customisable with freely scaling and placing objects, and that’s something that Yoshida has absolutely taken notice of.
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“We have immense respect for the World of Warcraft team,” Yoshida said. “So when we saw that the World of Warcraft team announced the new housing system—and they said specifically that they looked to 14 and incorporated things which they wanted to surpass us in—I think that in itself is a great honour for us to hear.”
Yoshida said that he’s had “a hands-on” with WoW’s housing system, calling it “amazing” and “a good source of research.” For what exactly? Well, perhaps for two major overhauls the team has lined up to tackle Final Fantasy 14’s housing, which should be releasing during upcoming expansion Evercold.
The first one is set to tackle the housing UI which, by Yoshida’s own admission, is “quite technical and not very accessible.” He says that the plan with the overhaul is to make it “more accessible for casual players, so that they can easily create elaborate housing.” I do wonder if that’ll just be a flat menu change, or a larger overhaul that allows greater freedom of item placement which, without utilising floating glitches (or third-party plugins) can be pretty darn restrictive.
Yoshida is being considerably tighter-lipped about the second planned overhaul, though. “But I think you will be much happier to hear what it is compared to the UI update,” he said. “It’s currently in the planning process right now on our end, and there is a chance that it will get released earlier than the UI update.”
He finished by saying that while he couldn’t share any specifics, “once we’re able to share those details, it’s probably the number one thing on the list a lot of people are requesting.” Whether Yoshida is referring to housing in general here—it wouldn’t surprise me if that and glamour were the two aspects the team received the most feedback about—or the specific overhaul in mind, it’s not super clear.
Either way, I’m excited. Even though I’ve been clinging onto a small house for dear life since 2021, I’ve yearned for an easier decoration system, the ability to make a cute little neighbourhood with my pals, and easier access to larger housing plots. Seriously, I’ve been bidding on medium houses in the Lavender Beds for seven months with zero success. Free me, Yoshida, I beg of you.
