'I'll give you one week!' FF14's director Yoshi-P wanted to start Dawntrail's early access period earlier, but then that pesky Elden Ring DLC announcement happened

Final Fantasy 14's upcoming expansion, Dawntrail, has had its release date announced at PAX East. It'll be arriving to tank login servers July 2, though there'll be an early access period June 28 for players who pre-ordered the expansion beforehand.

Why late June? As spotted by GamesRadar, ask the game's director Naoki Yoshida (also known as Yoshi-P), and he'll tell you that the dev team over at Creative Business Unit 3 actually «wanted to start it a week earlier.» Addressing the crowd at PAX (and a captive stream audience) a slightly sheepish Yoshi-P broke into English for two words and an acronym: «Elden Ring DLC», he admitted, stretching out the last syllable.

In case you've been living under a rock, Elden Ring will be getting its first major batch of DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, June 21—which, yeah. That's a landmine to dodge. «We figured that everybody would be interested in playing [it],» Yoshi-P adds, then lifts up his index finger. «I'll give you one week! … I'll give you one week to enjoy the Elden Ring DLC. Then just, go into your summer vacation and into Dawntrail.» 

He was very adamant that this totally, absolutely, really didn't have anything to do with him wanting to play the thing himself. «I just wanna make it clear,» he says, believably. «It's not just because I wanted to play the Elden Ring DLC and then play Dawntrail. Although I am looking forward to it.»

I mean, listen. Even if he did want to play Shadow of the Erdtree—something I would never imply—it's not like I could blame the guy. I've been hungry to get back into the Lands Between, but Final Fantasy 14 is my main MMO squeeze and I'll be binging the expansion's MSQ the moment I can get my hands on it. The fact that the two aren't dropping at once is a giant relief.

If you're keen to get into said early access week, you'll be able to pre-order Dawntrail starting March 26, earning a snazzy EXP-boosting earring and a wind-up Zidane minion for your trouble.

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