Square Enix finally coughed up the US Fan Fest 2026 schedule, and it's the standard hype train for Dawntrail diehards – Yoshida on stage, panels, concerts, the works. Anaheim Convention Center, April 24-25, tickets sold out faster than a 0.5% rate-up banner. F2P plebs stuck streaming from home, while us whales who dropped sub fees for years get to pretend we're VIP.

Day 1 kicks off at 10am PT with Yoshida's keynote dropping 'latest updates' – code for next expansion tease, because why not milk the expansion cycle harder? Dev panel with battle designer Hikaru Tamaki, some streamer game show circus, cosplay parade, and Keiko's piano gig (paid stream incoming). Day 2: PVP Crystalline Conflict NA champs, lyrics rant from Koji Fox, random Q&A roulette with Yoshida, capped by Primals concert – again, paywall for the real fans.

Official Lodestone confirms streams on Twitch and YouTube for free events, paid for concerts 'details later.' Merch preorders already live on SQEX store, because nothing says 'community event' like forcing your wallet open before Yoshida even speaks. Community on Reddit buzzing about sold-out salt and timezone pain – JP/CN servers feeling it worst at our ungodly hours.

As a Shenzhen whale who's burned thousands on gacha and now FFXIV shop mounts, this is peak dev greed: assemble the faithful, tease the future, extract the gil. Assemble if you can afford it.