Final Fantasy 14 relaxes its inactivity policy due to Hurricane Helene.

Players of Final Fantasy XIV will receive a temporary reprieve from a game inactivity policy that could lead to the loss of their virtual homes. This measure has been implemented in response to the impact of Hurricane Helene, which recently struck the United States. Starting October 2, the requirement for players to log in at least every 45 days to avoid the demolition of their properties will be suspended. This suspension affects all users of the Aether, Crystal, Dynamis, and Primal data center regions, corresponding to North American servers.

If your home was already scheduled for demolition before this suspension, you can cancel it simply by entering your house or performing some activity on your land. At this time, no end date has been indicated for this measure. However, when Square Enix decides to reactivate the timer, it will resume from the state it was in at the start of the suspension; for example, if you had a 30-day timer, it will restart from that figure.

The FFXIV development and management team expressed their support for those affected by the hurricane in a brief statement, wishing for a swift recovery and the possibility for players to return to the game.

Hurricane Helene made landfall last week as a Category 4 hurricane, causing the deaths of at least 128 people across six states and leaving over 2 million people without electricity. This has undoubtedly made logging into an MMO difficult.

This is not the first time Square Enix has paused the demolition countdown for homes. Previously, it was suspended during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and due to the earthquake in the Noto Peninsula earlier this year. This policy was also relaxed during the early access period of the latest expansion, Dawntrail.