DC Universe Online consolidating servers

Server consolidations have become a normality following the launch of most massively multiplayer online games, as game populations stabilize following the initial release hype. Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online will be no different, as the company announced through the game's official website that it will be consolidating gamers onto four "megaservers" beginning today.

Prior to the consolidation, DCUO's server count stood at 26. The merger combines servers by region and platform, with the US and Europe each getting their own PlayStation 3 and PC servers. SOE expects to merge the European PC servers today, which will take offline all of the DCUO platforms being consolidated for approximately 10 to 14 hours.

US PC servers will follow on August 10, and a day later SOE will bring down the US PS3 servers. The consolidation will conclude on August 15, when the European PS3 servers are all merged. The studio also noted that with the consolidations, gamers will be able to engage in player-versus-environment and player-versus-player combat all on one server.

SOE expects gamers to benefit from these server consolidations in a number of ways. Namely, the developer said that players will be able to interact with a much larger pool of fellow supers and will consequently have more people to participate in alerts, duos, and raids with. An increased population will also lead to a spike in the number of items at the in-game broker, SOE said.

There are some drawbacks, however. SOE said that it has changed some players' names and leagues to prevent duplication on the new servers. Name changes were implemented through "the fairest system possible," and those affected will also have the chance to pick a new moniker for free, should they disapprove of the one they were assigned.

For more on DC Universe Online, check out GameSpot's review.