On Tuesday, Mythic finally closed down 63 of its low population servers after several weeks of offering free transfers to more densely populated communities. Those still left on the closed realms were forcibly removed and asked to select a destination server to be their new home.

While this comes as no surprise after a recent announcement that there are only 300,000 subscribers left in the world of WAR (down from 750,000 at launch), EA Mythic General Manager Mark Jacobs maintains that subscriptions have actually been on the rise lately, probably as a result of more aggressive marketing and incentive programs for recruiting friends:

Over the last few months we’ve been telling people to transfer off the lower population servers. Over this same amount of time people have been asking/telling/begging us to merge servers. So, now that almost all the people transferred off those servers, we’ve done just that. And of course, when we do that, some people here say “OMG Fail!”

As I’ve already said, if WAR was a PvE game, we wouldn’t have closed those servers but since WAR is RvR-centric, leaving those servers open with their current population would not be a good idea. While these servers have been low population for quite a while once we told people to transfer off of them their population dropped too low for an RvR-centric game.

Oh, and as an FYI, once again our number of paying subs in NA went up again yesterday as did our PCU (even with backing out the trial accounts). These are undeniable facts, not spin.

Source

In total, 43 US servers have been closed along with 20 European ones. The list of affected servers and their destinations are as follows:

US Servers European Servers

Source Destination Source Destination Tower of Doom Heldenhammer Thorgrim Sea of Malice Chaos Wastes Anlec Middenheim Mordheim Wasteland Averheim Be’lakor Rakarth Lucan Lustria Marius Drifting Castle Grimnir Thorgrim Bretonnia Tor Achere Tower of Doom Ungrim Azazel Drakwald Avelorn Skavenblight Tor Elyr White Tower Eerie Downs Hochland Wolfenburg Wurtbad Bechafen Kragg Reikland Kislev Marienburg Red Eye Mountain Sea of Claws Heldenhammer Saphery Sylvania Ulthuan Magnus Ungrim Monolith Badlands Dark Crag Darklands Gorfang Gorfang Gorfang Iron Rock Iron Rock Iron Rock Ironclaw Ironclaw Ironclaw Ironfist Ironfist Ironfist Ironfist Magnus Magnus Magnus Monolith Monolith Ostermark Ostermark Ostermark Ostermark Praag Praag Praag Praag Praag Skull Throne Skull Throne Volkmar Volkmar Volkmar Volkmar Vortex Vortex Vortex Vortex Dragonback Mountains Mount Silverspear Sea Of Dreams Tiranoc Finuval Plain Karak Ungor Clar Karond Karak-Vlag Karak-Hirn Karaz-a-Karak TorAnroc Yvresse Zhufbar Worlds Edge Mountains Axe Bite Pass Karag Dron Karag Orrud Makaisson Ellyrion Alarielle Eltharion Eltharion Eltharion Eltharion Eltharion Karak-Azgal Karak-Azgal Karak-Azgal Karak-Norn Karak-Norn Karak-Norn Karak-Norn Karak Eight Peaks Karak Eight Peaks Karak Eight Peaks Karak Eight Peaks Karak Eight Peaks Burlok Burlok Burlok

In continuing his dialog with the community, Mark Jacobs also wrote an extensive update for his State of the Game series of news postings about the internal workings of Warhammer Online. Highlights of the letter include 11 priorities from Mythic’s perspective during the current development cycle, some encouraging words for those who fear for the future of WAR, and some brief words on the upcoming Tomb Kings-themed zones:

Right now we’re in the middle of our first LIVE expansion for WAR. As part of that, we have just released our biggest patch yet for WAR. While I am a long-standing member of “There is no such thing as a miracle patch” club, this patch cycle (1.2) and the one that will follow it (1.3) represent a huge number of changes, bug fixes, and additions to our game. Given the proximity of these two releases, I think it is pretty safe to say that these represent one of the largest (if not the largest) amount of new content, tweaks, adjustments, etc. to any MMO over the course of several months.

The team has worked very hard on this and the scope of this patch cycle demonstrates Mythic’s willingness to continue to work on WAR as it stands now and not focus resources in other directions. While the 1.2 patch, like big MMO patches in every game, came with its own warts, overall it was a big win for Mythic and the WAR community. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk a little bit about our next patch, 1.2.1. Currently, the 1.2.1 patch already contains 400+ bug fixes in both content and systems and we hope to add even more fixes to this list. Additionally, 1.2.1 also contains the initial Keep Upgrade system (more on this below), more improvements to T3 in terms of content and experience and the Combat and Careers team will give some extra loving to the Archmage, Shaman, White Lion, and Marauder, another Live Event and much more. Currently, this version is slated to be released next month.

-Mark Jacobs, EA Mythic General Manager

Source

Are things looking up for Warhammer Online? In the past, server closings were the traditional death knell for an ailing MMO, however typical MMOs do not revolve around open PvP combat, which necessitates densely populated servers in order to function properly. This move is a step in the right direction, and with subscriptions on the rise perhaps WAR is ready to make a comeback in spite of its bad publicity and the dragging economy.

Similar Posts:

• Incoming! Dawn of War 2 Patch On the Way
• Don’t Hate the Slaya, Hate the Game: Can the Bitter Rivals Patch 1.2 Save Warhammer Online?
• Dawn of War 2 Patch 1.1.3 Goes Live
• Mythic Offers 10-Day Free Trial of Warhammer Online
• More Playable Classes Coming to Warhammer Online