Fans waiting for Final Fantasy XIV‘s latest expansion, Endwalker, will have to wait a little bit longer, as Square-Enix has announced the game has been delayed until 7 December 2021, with Early Access starting on 3 December.

The statement from Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida is pretty reasonable, stating that the extra time is needed for debugging and ensuring game stability:

“We sincerely apologise for postponing the release at the last minute on this occasion. FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker is both the latest expansion pack for the game and the one that will conclude the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga spanning 11 years since the launch of the original FFXIV.

“We will of course deliver a new adventure in FFXIV to follow on from Endwalker but, with the various struggles we experienced from the failure of the original FFXIV leading up to where we are now, I just couldn’t contain my desire to perfect Endwalker to the best of my ability. As a result, the time we spent on quality improvement exceeded our expectations and we ended up using our time allotted for debugging. On the other hand, as stability is crucial for an online game, I have taken the decision to postpone the release of the expansion pack for a fortnight in order to resecure the time for debugging that would arise as we wrap up development.

“Once more, I’d like to convey my deepest apologies to all of our Warriors of Light and partners for the inconvenience this has caused. We will continue to do our utmost to bring you the best adventure in Endwalker and to expand the game experience through further updates that will follow, in order to restore your trust step by step.”

To soothe fans a little longer, a launch trailer for the game was debuted, as well as a teaser for the theme song music video: