{"id":61597,"date":"2026-03-03T15:31:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T06:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=61597"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:43:17","slug":"another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday, Square Enix announced that it had taken firm action<\/a> against the administrator of news aggregator site Netoge Sokuh\u014d (formerly \u201cFF14 Sokuh\u014d\u201d) for publishing article(s) that harmed the reputations of its executives and employees. The incident was settled with the administrator publishing an apology, scheduling the site\u2019s closure, and paying a settlement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a day later, another blog, called Umadori Sokuh\u014d, announced<\/a> that it would cease updates and shut down. The administrators have also issued an apology to Final Fantasy XIV development and management staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Netoge Sokuh\u014d and Umadori Sokuh\u014d are so-called \u201cmatome\u201d sites, which generally post \u201carticles\u201d created by compiling excerpts from the anonymous message board 5channel. In the case of Netoge Sokuh\u014d, some of the content posted to the blog was determined to constitute harassment of Square Enix employees, which ultimately prompted the company to take action. However, it seems that that whoever is running Umadori Sokuh\u014d has decided to learn from Netoge Sokuh\u014d\u2019s example and self-initiatively cease activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement posted on March 3 reads: \u201cHaving reconsidered the weight of responsibility involved in disseminating information online, I have decided to draw a line under this matter in my own way. To all the FF14 development and operations staff whom I have inconvenienced, I sincerely apologize.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like\u00a0Netoge\u00a0Sokuh\u014d,\u00a0Umadori\u00a0Sokuh\u014d\u00a0also\u00a0features (often\u00a0toxic) comment sections beneath its articles,\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0latter\u2019s\u00a0administrator cites difficulties in managing abusive and defamatory comments.\u00a0They\u00a0note that even when banning users via IP address, smartphone users can simply change their IP address and post again,\u00a0which makes rules\u00a0difficult\u00a0to enforce. Furthermore,\u00a0news\u00a0of\u00a0Netoge\u00a0Sokuh\u014d\u00a0shutting down\u00a0likely led to an influx of readers from there, further complicating moderation.\u00a0It\u00a0seems that\u00a0all article comment sections on Umadori\u00a0Sokuh\u014d\u00a0will be disabled within a few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/strong>Square Enix anti-harassment policy brings attention to vicious hate campaigns against Final Fantasy 16 and its creators <\/strong><\/a>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a day after Square Enix announced a settlement with the administrator of Netoge Sokuh\u014d, another Final Fantasy 14 blog is shutting down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":32145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-61597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nAnother Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just a day after Square Enix announced a settlement with the administrator of Netoge Sokuh\u014d, another Final Fantasy 14 blog is shutting down.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Another Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just a day after Square Enix announced a settlement with the administrator of Netoge Sokuh\u014d, another Final Fantasy 14 blog is shutting down.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-03T06:31:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-03T08:43:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607-32140.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1126\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"642\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Another Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Just a day after Square Enix announced a settlement with the administrator of Netoge Sokuh\u014d, another Final Fantasy 14 blog is shutting down.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Another Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Just a day after Square Enix announced a settlement with the administrator of Netoge Sokuh\u014d, another Final Fantasy 14 blog is shutting down.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-03-03T06:31:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-03T08:43:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1126,"height":642,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607-32140.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Another Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-03-03T06:31:50+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-03T08:43:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/"},"wordCount":402,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607-32140.jpg","keywords":["Final Fantasy","News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/","name":"Another Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607-32140.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-03T06:31:50+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-03T08:43:17+00:00","description":"Just a day after Square Enix announced a settlement with the administrator of Netoge Sokuh\u014d, another Final Fantasy 14 blog is shutting down.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607-32140.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240607-32140.jpg","width":1126,"height":642,"caption":"Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-final-fantasy-14-news-aggregator-in-japan-announces-closure-and-apologizes-to-square-enix-staff\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Another Final Fantasy 14\u00a0news\u00a0aggregator in Japan\u00a0announces closure and apologizes to Square Enix staff\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61597"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61627,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61597\/revisions\/61627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}