FFXIV Pauses Home Demolition, Protecting Players' In-Game Assets

Square Enix announced that the automatic housing demolition timers on all four Final Fantasy 14 North American data centers were paused one day after restarting. The company stated that the temporary moratorium on housing demolition in Final Fantasy 14 was due to the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires, and said it would monitor the situation before picking a time to restart it.

Due to the limited number of housing plots available on a Final Fantasy 14 game server, Square Enix uses an automatic demolition timer of up to 45 days to free up plots that are occupied by inactive players or free companies. The timer is only reset if the housing plot's owner sets foot on the estate, which encourages players to remain subscribed to keep their virtual home. However, if players are unable to log into Final Fantasy 14 due to natural disasters or other real-world events, Square Enix has implemented temporary pauses on automatic housing for specific servers or data centers. These moratoriums are followed up with advance notice of when they will end.

Although Final Fantasy 14 previously announced it would restart automatic housing demolitions in North America, that will not be the case. According to the Lodestone, Final Fantasy 14 paused auto-demolitions on the North American data centers, effective Thursday, January 9, at 11:20 PM Eastern. The pause was due to the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires, and no timetable was given for when the auto-demolition timers would be turned back on. The previous auto-demolition timer break, which ended on January 8, was due to the after-effects of Hurricane Helene. The new moratorium is only in effect for Final Fantasy 14 players and free companies who own housing plots on the Aether, Primal, Crystal, or Dynamis data centers. As before, homeowners can ensure their timers are reset to the full 45-day duration by entering them at any time during the ongoing pause.

Final Fantasy 14 Pauses Automatic Housing Demolition Timers After Restarting Them

• Final Fantasy 14 paused automatic housing demolitions on the Aether, Primal, Crystal, and Dynamis data centers.
• The ongoing Los Angeles wildfires were the main reason Square Enix took action.
• The new pause started a day after a previous moratorium ended after three months.
• Square Enix will monitor the situation and update players on when timers will resume.

Square Enix stated it would monitor the situation with the ongoing LA wildfires and expressed its sympathies to all players affected by the disaster. However, the impact of the LA wildfires has also stretched beyond just Final Fantasy 14. The popular web series Critical Role postponed its Campaign 3 climax by a week due to the ongoing fires, and an NFL playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings was relocated to Glendale, Arizona.

Between the moratorium on housing demolitions and the return of the free login campaign to Final Fantasy 14, players have had an eventful start to 2025. Only time will tell how long the current auto-demolition pause will remain in place.