Hero image: Final Fantasy XIV. Image: Square Enix
Square Enix will add one day of game time to eligible Final Fantasy XIV accounts, after it suspended new logins on every world while it responded to a PHP vulnerability.
The publisher set this out in a Lodestone notice titled “Compensation for Game Time Due to the Unexpected Suspension of New Logins (Oct. 23)”. It reads:
“Regarding the response to a critical vulnerability in the PHP programming language, we were forced to unexpectedly suspend new logins for approximately one day from Oct. 21 to Oct. 22, 2026. We apologize for the inconvenience caused. Although this was an urgent security measure, in consideration of the fact that we were unable to provide advance notice and that the suspension lasted for an extended period, we would like to grant one day of game time to the following customers.”
The notice lists two conditions for eligible accounts. The full version of the game must be registered to the service account. The account must have had an active subscription as of 21 October or 22 October 2026, in Pacific Daylight Time.
For accounts with recurring subscription payments, the subscription end date is extended by one day. The notice says paid optional services, such as additional retainer subscriptions, are also extended by one day. Accounts without recurring payments have one day of game time added.
The grant starts at 12:00am PDT on 28 October, which is 6pm AEDT on 28 October by our conversion. The notice says the process is expected to take two to three days to complete, because of the number of eligible accounts.
It applies to the global version only. The notice says the effect on logins and applicable laws vary by region, so the availability of compensation and the number of days granted differ depending on the operating region.
The earlier notices give the timeline. The first notice says the patch servers were taken offline for security enhancements and that new logins were unavailable on all worlds. The follow-up says updated patch servers were released at approximately 5:16am PDT on Thursday 22 October, and new logins resumed.
That follow-up says the save data server backup feature stayed suspended. A third notice says it resumed around 1:35am PDT on Friday 23 October, following the completion of security enhancement measures.
None of the notices says which PHP vulnerability was involved, or whether any account data was affected.
Source: Square Enix (The Lodestone) – Compensation for Game Time Due to the Unexpected Suspension of New Logins, Square Enix (The Lodestone) – Notice Regarding Temporary Suspension of New Logins Across All Worlds, Square Enix (The Lodestone) – Notice Regarding the Resumption of New Logins on All Worlds, Square Enix (The Lodestone) – Recommencement of the Server Backup Feature for Save Data