Server mergers planned for Aion
Patch 1.9, character transfers live in June.
NCsoft has revealed that it will be merging servers for its MMO Aion: The Tower of Eternity in North America and Europe, due to falling server populations.
A timetable and plan for the mergers will be revealed "in the coming weeks," producer Chris Hager said in his latest letter to the community (via Massively).
"Some of the specific concerns you've told us about deal with difficulty finding groups in game, having resources to contribute to the overall server economy, and being able to gather strong enough forces to enjoy the end game content," Hager said.
"After reviewing all of the game, character, and server data we found that certain level ranges or classes had healthy numbers, but across ALL level ranges and professions most of our servers didn't have ideal populations.
"I don't relish the idea of mergers... However, once it is complete you should notice improvements in each of the new server economies, an abundance of players to group and run instances with, a number of great Legions to join or people to form new ones with, and a more tightly knit community. When all is said and done, Aion will be a better game because of the server merge," he finished.
Hager also revealed that the game's next patch, update 1.9, will go live on 2nd June. The patch grants new skills to every character class, overhauls questing and speeds up levelling.
A character transfer service, which NCsoft first announced shortly after the game's launch in September last year, will go live in mid-June and be free for a limited period, he said.
Finally, the 2.0 patch, which adds a large amount of new content to Aion, is headed for a fall release in North America and Europe, according to Hager.