Final Fantasy 14’s ‘Dawntrail’ Gets A Release Date, Moved Because Of ‘Elden Ring’

Dawntrail

Square Enix

Players finally have an answer to when Final Fantasy 14’s new Dawntrail expansion will be released, announced by Yoshi-P. And it’s designed to dodge something rather important releasing around the same time, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

Early access for Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail will be Friday, June 28, 2024. Regular release will be on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.

Yoshi-P said on stage that they could have released it earlier, but recognized that Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC comes out on June 21, 2024, so they are trying to give it at least a week of distance before early access starts for Dawntrail. He also says that he himself wants to play Shadow of the Erdtree as well.

Right now, generally speaking, games are giving Shadow of the Erdtree a wide berth in June. Destiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion will be out on June 4, well ahead of it. And another game jumped out of the way completely, Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance, which was set to launch June 21 as well, but just a few days ago, announced that it was going to be out a week earlier on June 14. Again, you do not want to mess with Elden Ring.

Given Shadow of the Erdtree’s likely size, for many players a single week with the expansion may not be nearly enough, but I don’t blame Final Fantasy 14 for not wanting to push back Dawntrail even more than this. A week for early access and almost two for real launch should be good enough. And after that, at least right now, July is wide open for releases meaning either game should be able to be enjoyed indefinitely without some other major title coming and stomping on them.

2024 may not be quite the insane year of releases that 2023 was in the gaming world, but by the end we will rack up quite a few good ones to be sure, and it’s easy to imagine how even expansions may be considered some of the best content of the year by the end, especially if it’s Final Fantasy and Elden Ring we’re talking about here. Now we have dates for both, and it’s enough distance where hopefully both can be enjoyed comfortably.

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I’ve been writing about video games, television and movies for Forbes for over 10 years, and you may have seen my reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. I cover all manner of console and PC games, but if it’s about looting or shooting, I’m definitely there. If I’m watching something, it’s usually science fiction, horror or superheroic. I’m also a regular on IGN’s Fireteam Chat podcast and have published five sci-fi novels.