Final Fantasy XIV's much-anticipated Data Center Travel System is planned to arrive later in 2022. Fans have been waiting for a chance to play with their friends, who started on a different Data Center. For example, players that created a character on Primal have not been able to enjoy the game with adventurers on Aether. While no exact date was given, the system's release is likely to line up with the addition of new Data Centers to FFXIV later this year.
Months before the launch of Stormblood, the World Visit System changed the way players interacted forever in FFXIV. No longer were friends on different Worlds restricted to experiencing instanced content. This feature gave players the ability to take their character and travel to another World. The system was the first time many adventurers could fly around together on multi-seater mounts, like The Regalia from FFXV. The biggest restriction to the World Visit System is that players can only travel across their own server. Data Center Travel is the next step in connecting the FFXIV community.
An article on The Lodestone details both when and what players can expect from this new feature. Adventurers "will be able to travel between different Logical Data Centers, as long as they are within the same Physical Data Center." For example, fans in North America will not be able to join Data Centers outside of their own region. Some chat functions are also going to be disabled while using the Data Center Travel System, "due to the fact that it isn't possible to keep an eye on chat and cross-world servers outside the bounds of a logical data center." Following the launch of the new Oceania Data Center in FFXIV, the system is planned for a 6.1X Patch release, which lines up with the addition of even more servers.
FFXIV's Data Center Travel Is Coming In Patch 6.1x
The article continues to discuss the accommodation for the influx of players in North America and server congestion in FFXIV. Due to the global shortage of semi-conductors, the team is unable to install as many servers as they had initially planned. Instead, they are splitting the addition of more Worlds into two phases. In August 2022, "One new Logical Data Center will be established and four new Worlds will be added under it."
This seems the most likely time for the Data Center Travel System to be implemented because the latest update to the game was Patch 6.08 and August 2022 would still likely be 6.1x content. The second phase will add four more Worlds in the Spring or Summer of 2023, but by that time, FFXIV will probably be in at least 6.2. Hopefully, this means Final Fantasy XIV fans will not have to wait much longer to join their friends and create new adventures in Eorzea.
Source: FFXIV Lodestone