One of the key features found in Microsoft’s Xbox console ecosystem is the profanity filter. This is a semi-permanent and forced element that is there to protect users of all ages. It filters out certain words in all games and censors them online. Unfortunately, the Xbox profanity filter is ruining the FFXIV in-game chat.
While Xbox Series X players may be hyped to finally dive into FFXIV, chat is a bit problematic no matter if you are on a free trial or a subscription Since this is an MMORPG, players can chat with one another online. However, the profanity filter on Xbox censors some of the most unnecessary words. It is so excessive at this point that it almost feels like a bug.
Here’s an example from Minfilia and Blamite on social media:
For instance, the Xbox Series X will censor words like “class” and “raids” in a FFXIV chat, no matter what your settings are in-game. So words like class will appear as “cl???” while raids will look like “r???.” This is seemingly because these words contain other, more graphic or sensitive words within them. As you can imagine, that makes communicating with your friends and strangers frustrating. Good luck trying to find some new raid partners with these profanity filters on.
Worse still, the FFXIV setting for chat profanity doesn’t help with this Xbox profanity filter at all. The game censors certain curse words for those who don’t want to see them, and you can turn this option off in the in-game menus. However, turning this off does not alleviate this problem in the slightest. In fact, you can try to head to your system settings and change the “Message Safety” setting to “unfiltered,” and it still won’t help.
For now, this is an issue that has no fix. That is a huge problem for an MMO, as you want to be able to let someone know you need help in Thanalan, but potentially can’t because the word contains a certain other word Microsoft doesn’t want everyone seeing. It doesn’t matter if you are shouting, whispering, or even chatting with your Free Company. This will always be a problem.
For now, all we can do is reach out to Microsoft and Square Enix, then hope this changes in the future. After all, this is a cross-play MMORPG with PC, PS4, and PS5 players. There are no such issues on those other platforms. This essentially means Xbox players are at a disadvantage for no reason. For now, Xbox players may need to adapt shorthand versions of words to communicate. For instance, changing “class” to “clas” and “raid” to “rayd” or the like. Hopefully this changes soon or else the Xbox chat in FFXIV may be almost entirely unusable.
Final Fantasy XIV is available right now for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Its fifth expansion, Dawntrail, will release on July 2, 2024.
