As part of power conservation measures enacted following the Tohoku earthquake, our game servers were shut down on Mar. 13, 2011 3:00 (PDT) and services for FINAL FANTASY XIV, FINAL FANTASY XI, and PlayOnline (hereafter referred to as "these services") were temporarily suspended. We have determined a date for the restoration of these services, and would like to share this information with you.
Operating the servers for these services makes up 11.6% of the total power consumed by our Tokyo office (based on February 2011 records). We have shut down our air conditioning system (8.8%) and enacted other power conservation measures, such as reducing lighting in our offices, to achieve over 10% in energy usage reductions. With these energy saving measures in place, we will be able to bring our servers back online and restore service to FINAL FANTASY XIV, FINAL FANTASY XI, and PlayOnline on Mar. 25, 2011 4:00 (PDT). All other services, such as those offered on the PlayOnline website, that were temporarily suspended will also be restored at the same time. Please be aware, however, that we may once again be required to suspend services in the event that the power situation worsens.
We offer our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by the temporary suspension of these services, and thank you for your understanding. As noted in our original notice regarding the suspension of these services, customers will not be charged any monthly fees for FINAL FANTASY XI throughout the April billing cycle.
We at the Square Enix group are trying to act in a proactive manner in order to provide support towards the relief and restoration efforts in the face of this unprecedented disaster while providing reliable service to our customers, and we thank you for your understanding and support.
I cannot wait, that is Friday. I have been fiending so damn bad at this point, I picked up Smackdown VS Raw 2011 and I was incredibly disappointed in it so I have been just trying to find ways to just do things without going insane for FFXI.
"My obvious charms and god-like powers always razzle-dazzle the simple-minded ordinary folk."
Well, they're already not charging us for April, so not sure they're really losing any more money than they've already given up. That said, I certainly understand why they are trying to bring the servers back up. They're a business and they have to run. They provide a service, and they want to continue to provide a service and keep us happy.
I suppose with the evacuations and such there aren't that many people working in that building right now (I've heard Sony's Tokyo HQ is mostly empty right now), so maybe that's why they justified shutting off the A/C.
