https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/final-fantasy-xivs-next-major-content-patch-is-releasing-in-august/ The Final Fantasy XIV team had to shift to working from home back in April due to lockdown measures being implemented in Japan. COVID-19 also impacted the ability to obtain assets from partner studios outside of Japan. At this point, the team is diligently combing through the update with QA teams to ensure all is up to par.
Final Fantasy XIV producer and director, Naoki Yoshida, addressed fans himself with
a post saying: “First, I would like to apologize again to all of our players for the delay of Patch 5.3─Reflections in Crystal, which was originally scheduled to release on June 16th.”
“Although our development and operations teams, as well as QA testing, have experienced a number of setbacks due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), I am pleased to inform you that development production is back on course, and we’ve settled on a new patch release schedule.”
Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.3 is now coming on the 11th of August 2020. Future major updates, like Patch 5.4 and so on, will all be pushed back accordingly to avoid rushing development and having to cut content.
The delay due to the corona virus is not unexpected. Nearly all games have been impacted in this way.