Final Fantasy 14 players get 1 free day of game time after Square Enix lifts the MMO's PHP lockdown

After a wild week of security fears and login restrictions, Final Fantasy 14 went back up and open to the public yesterday – but Square Enix is well aware that subscribed players lost out on game time due to the situation… paid game time.

In case you're out of the loop, there was a major worldwide internet security scare earlier this week involving PHP, the programming language that powers various websites and more.

There were two serious security weaknesses, leading to many shutdowns – even the Steam store went down amid the issues – and Final Fantasy 14 was no exception, as Square Enix closed the game to new logins.

Following their work to maintain security on the MMO's servers despite the PHP shenanigans, the developers reopened Final Fantasy 14 (and, sadly, also announced that housing demolition would soon be back in effect as a result).

Lots of folks were left wondering if they'd get any money back in return for the day of time in-game they missed; however, with conversations taking off online – and it appears that the answer is yes, sort of.

According to a new announcement from Square Enix, subscribed players will receive "one day of game time" back for free starting October 28.

This applies as long as "the full version of Final Fantasy 14 has been registered to the service account" and "the service account had an active subscription" as of October 21, when logins were initially closed off.

Overall, fans seem pretty pleased with the update, too. Over on X, comments highlight as much, with players dubbing this a win and praising the devs for being so quick to pay back game time.

As one person writes, "W Square Enix." W indeed, anon. W indeed. It's a good sign that the studio is listening to us, even if I'm still a bit sad about the housing demolition news (look, I've just got severe anxiety about losing my cozy Lavender Beds plot, okay), and that the devs care.

It's especially welcome in the lead-up to Evercold, the MMO's upcoming expansion – one I personally can't wait for. It's safe to say that I'd be subscribed up until that point, free day of game time or not, honestly.

Final Fantasy 14 devs ask for the impossible, beg players to "take time to read" up on the MMO's options before Evercold is out