FFXIV: Evercold Expansion Confirmed for Jan. 2027, Switch 2 Version Launches Aug. 4
Square Enix used the second Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival of 2026, held in Berlin, to lock in an August 4, 2026 launch date for the MMORPG’s long-awaited Nintendo Switch 2 version, while also detailing the game’s next expansion, Evercold, ahead of its January 2027 release. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida used the keynote to unveil the expansion’s first new job, a crossover raid built around Final Fantasy VII Remake, and a full pricing breakdown for Switch 2 players.
Square Enix confirmed in an official press release that Final Fantasy XIV will launch on Nintendo Switch 2 on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, with pre-orders starting today on Nintendo eShop, and there will be an approximately one-month free subscription period on Nintendo Switch 2 to ensure server stability. According to Nintendo Life, Final Fantasy XIV Online’s Starter Edition is priced at $19.99 / £11.99, the Complete Edition at $59.99 / £44.99 (pre-order price: $41.99 / £31.49), and the Complete Collector’s Edition at $139.99 / £87.99 (pre-order price: $97.99 / £61.59).
The Fourth: Evercold’s Frozen Reflection and the Godless Realms Saga
Evercold is the sixth expansion for Final Fantasy XIV Online, and RPGamer’s coverage of the Berlin keynote notes that Evercold continues the “Godless Realms Saga” that began with the events of Dawntrail, taking players to the realm known as the Fourth, a reflection of Hydaelyn that has fallen to ruin and is succumbing to encroaching ice, forcing its people to move to the skies and live upon five great airships known as Realmships. The site further reported that the Fourth faces a new threat, with the Warrior of Light required to travel to it and become the “Far Wanderer.”
Techtimes, reporting from the same Berlin session, detailed some of the new zones travellers will explore, noting new areas including Naglfar, a Realmship of Water with plains, cliffs and a central Ark Crystal, its hub city Falgarthr shielded behind a protective barrier, and Hringhorni, the Realmship of Fire, combining heavy industrial aesthetics with unexpectedly verdant forests and lakes. Square Enix’s own recap on the Lodestone site confirms the expansion arrives as patch 8.0, with Evercold currently on track for its January 2027 launch window.
Bastion: Evercold’s First New Tank Wields Twin Greatshields
The headline gameplay reveal was Bastion, the expansion’s first confirmed job. Square Enix’s press materials describe it as a main tank and elsewhere state that Bastion wields a pair of greatshields known as skyltborg. Outlet FullCleared, covering the keynote live, added that Bastion starts at Level 90 through a quest in Limsa Lominsa and can grant both itself and party members defensive and curative boons.
Yoshida appeared on stage in the job’s full armour set for the reveal, with PCGamesN quoting him joking about the weight of the costume: “It’s so heavy!” A second physical ranged job for Evercold is still to come, with Square Enix confirming it will be revealed at the next Fan Festival stop in Tokyo.
Beyond the Lifestream: A Final Fantasy VII Remake Raid Joins Evercold
Alongside Bastion, Yoshida was joined on stage by Final Fantasy VII Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi to reveal “Beyond the Lifestream,” an eight-player raid series set inside Evercold’s patch cycle. Square Enix’s press hub states that it is a new Final Fantasy VII-themed 8-player raid series that players will challenge in Evercold, with both development teams working closely together to create an exciting new raid experience for players. TheGamer reported that the raid will be split into three tiers across the upcoming Evercold expansion, starting with update 8.01, and encompass three difficulties, and quoted Hamaguchi explaining on stage that “both teams are hard at work on making this happen”.
The Final Fantasy VII crossover sits alongside an already-announced Evangelion collaboration, “Ghosts of Desire,” which RPG Site reported was first revealed as an Evangelion x FFXIV crossover tentatively titled ‘Ghosts of Desire’ as a three-part Alliance Raid, developed by Square Enix while khara supervises it at the earlier Anaheim leg of the Fan Festival. Evercold’s launch will therefore ship with two separate anime and RPG crossover raid series running in tandem — an unusually dense line-up for a single expansion cycle.
Switch 2 Editions, File Size and the Separate Subscription Fee
For newcomers eyeing the Switch 2 debut, Siliconera’s breakdown of the eShop listings clarifies what each tier includes: the base version of Final Fantasy XIV on the Switch 2 nets someone the original MMORPG and the FFXIV Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers expansions, plus 30 days of a free subscription, for $19.99, while the Complete Edition costs $59.99 (pre-order price $41.99) and includes the base game, 30 days free to play, and every expansion up through Dawntrail. RPG Site additionally confirmed that the download size listed on the eShop is 117GB for FFXIV on Switch 2.
Existing subscribers on other platforms won’t get a free ride onto Switch 2 either. Gematsu’s report on the keynote notes that the Switch 2 version will require a separate monthly subscription from the other versions, but will not require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, and users already subscribed on other platforms can receive a 50 percent discount on the Switch 2 version’s subscription fee. For Australian and New Zealand players used to converting US and UK pricing on the eShop, that means budgeting for both a game purchase and a standalone monthly fee if they intend to play alongside their existing PC or PlayStation characters — though cross-progression with existing saves is otherwise unaffected.
Read also: Switch eShop Charts: Avatar Legends Fighting Game Debuts at No. 7, Tops Downloads
With the Switch 2 port arriving five months ahead of Evercold itself, Square Enix appears to be using Nintendo’s console as a fresh on-ramp for players before the Godless Realms Saga’s next chapter begins in earnest. Whether that strategy pays off will likely hinge on how smoothly the servers handle an influx of new Warriors of Light this August.
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