The latest PlanetSide 2 director's letter has been published on the official forums. In it, Matt Higby lays out the case for server closures as well as reveals new information about the 'road map' that the development team is following over the next several months.

Finally: Server Merges. Next week we will be doing server merges to help even populations across all game servers. Right now we have a lot of disparity between populations on our servers, some are highly populated with active fights across all continents, some are not. This is a factor of which servers were most popular at launch, and players gravitating to one or two servers per locale. Now that the crush of new players from launch and the holidays has died down, and our server populations and incoming new players have stabilized we have a good idea of where each server stands in terms of player population, empire population and we can model merges to optimize the populations.

You won’t have to do anything to participate, the entire server population will be moving, your friends, outfits & certs will all be coming with you. Those of you on servers that are being merged will just see that your character is on a different server the next time you log in after the merger is complete. The result of these merges will be a more consistent and full server population during off-peak hours, more players to support better utilization of all of the continents in the game and, generally a lot more massive in your massively-multiplayer. Shortly after the merges are complete we plan to begin offering server transfer tokens, so if you would prefer to go to a different server at that point you could.

Read the rest of the letter on the PlanetSide 2 site.

Originally posted by Seelinnikoi
And so it begins... the downfall.

It's not the downfall, infact they are fixing a lot of problems, making it more desireable than it was at launch. They still have a long ways to go in fixing the metagameplay, but the fact is they launched with WAY too many servers in the first place.

More proof that F2P isn't the magic solution to the industry's woes.

Seems a game that will struggle will struggle regardless. I would love to see some real and honest  figures as to just how 'F2P' games are doing across the board. It seems we are seeing just as much player loss with the model as we ever did with a sub.

Originally posted by Vesavius

More proof that F2P isn't the magic solution to the industry's woes.

 

Seems a game that will struggle will struggle regardless. I would love to see some real and honest  figures as to just how 'F2P' games are doing across the board. It seems we are seeing just as much player loss with the model as we ever did with a sub.

I honestly don't think they are struggling, not really at all PS2 is cash machine. Hell I spent 40 on beta, and another 60 after launch. That's saying a lot. I'm just not a FPS person. I still pop in every now and then though.

Originally posted by bcbully

Originally posted by Vesavius

More proof that F2P isn't the magic solution to the industry's woes.

 

Seems a game that will struggle will struggle regardless. I would love to see some real and honest  figures as to just how 'F2P' games are doing across the board. It seems we are seeing just as much player loss with the model as we ever did with a sub.

I honestly don't think they are struggling, not really at all PS2 is cash machine. Hell I spent 40 on beta, and another 60 after launch. That's saying a lot. I'm just not a FPS person. I still pop in every now and then though.

I can t remeber where the article is, but apparently PS2 is making a killing.

They're merging because most servers only have consistant fights on one of the three continents. Some servers are active enough to be left alone as well. With the upcoming release of more continents the server merges will be needed. As a former active player (BR87), I'm looking forward to jumping back into the game with the merges. More players on the two less-played continents will make me more interested in the game. 

The main thing they need to work on now is more incentive to capture and hold territory. Right now there's hardly a downside to losing territory, hopefully that changes in the next update or two.

Originally posted by Deto123

Originally posted by bcbully

Originally posted by Vesavius

More proof that F2P isn't the magic solution to the industry's woes.

 

Seems a game that will struggle will struggle regardless. I would love to see some real and honest  figures as to just how 'F2P' games are doing across the board. It seems we are seeing just as much player loss with the model as we ever did with a sub.

I honestly don't think they are struggling, not really at all PS2 is cash machine. Hell I spent 40 on beta, and another 60 after launch. That's saying a lot. I'm just not a FPS person. I still pop in every now and then though.

I can t remeber where the article is, but apparently PS2 is making a killing.

apparently?  Is it?  I heard it was going tits up.  Since i have no more citation than you both our comments are nonsense.  

Originally posted by ScaryMonk

Originally posted by Deto123

Originally posted by bcbully

Originally posted by Vesavius

More proof that F2P isn't the magic solution to the industry's woes.

 

Seems a game that will struggle will struggle regardless. I would love to see some real and honest  figures as to just how 'F2P' games are doing across the board. It seems we are seeing just as much player loss with the model as we ever did with a sub.

I honestly don't think they are struggling, not really at all PS2 is cash machine. Hell I spent 40 on beta, and another 60 after launch. That's saying a lot. I'm just not a FPS person. I still pop in every now and then though.

I can t remeber where the article is, but apparently PS2 is making a killing.

apparently?  Is it?  I heard it was going tits up.  Since i have no more citation than you both our comments are nonsense.  

OK, It is making a killing, hows that.

Originally posted by Deto123

Originally posted by bcbully

Originally posted by Vesavius

More proof that F2P isn't the magic solution to the industry's woes.

 

Seems a game that will struggle will struggle regardless. I would love to see some real and honest  figures as to just how 'F2P' games are doing across the board. It seems we are seeing just as much player loss with the model as we ever did with a sub.

I honestly don't think they are struggling, not really at all PS2 is cash machine. Hell I spent 40 on beta, and another 60 after launch. That's saying a lot. I'm just not a FPS person. I still pop in every now and then though.

I can t remeber where the article is, but apparently PS2 is making a killing.

I am sure that's the line and all, but mergers speak for themselves.

I don't actually doubt they are still making profit, but the shrinkage is plain to see.

Originally posted by Deto123

Originally posted by ScaryMonk

Originally posted by Deto123

Originally posted by bcbully

Originally posted by Vesavius

More proof that F2P isn't the magic solution to the industry's woes.

 

Seems a game that will struggle will struggle regardless. I would love to see some real and honest  figures as to just how 'F2P' games are doing across the board. It seems we are seeing just as much player loss with the model as we ever did with a sub.

I honestly don't think they are struggling, not really at all PS2 is cash machine. Hell I spent 40 on beta, and another 60 after launch. That's saying a lot. I'm just not a FPS person. I still pop in every now and then though.

I can t remeber where the article is, but apparently PS2 is making a killing.

apparently?  Is it?  I heard it was going tits up.  Since i have no more citation than you both our comments are nonsense.  

OK, It is making a killing, hows that.

You clearly aren't reading.

Originally posted by bcbully
The less servers the better with PS2 no question.

+1.  Some MMOs 'get away' with not merging when they should.  They are worse off for that. SOE is making the right decision 100% and I do not think it downcasts the quality of the game; if anything it raises my hopes that SOE is bringing this great game in the correct direction.

Originally posted by HikaruShidou

Originally posted by Seelinnikoi
And so it begins... the downfall.

It's not the downfall, infact they are fixing a lot of problems, making it more desireable than it was at launch. They still have a long ways to go in fixing the metagameplay, but the fact is they launched with WAY too many servers in the first place.

It may not be its downfall, but it sure isn't a sign of healthy growth of the game population.  You'd expect the game to keep expanding at least for the first six months if not the first year and then to remain relatively stable for an even longer period.  That so many have left is a sign that there isn't enough to the game to keep people around long term, let alone spend money on it.