14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Sony has announced that it will be adding more servers and will develop the infrastructure supporting its MMO DC Universe Online in order to deal with the increase in player interest which followed the title's move to the free-to-play business model.
John Smedley, who is the Chief Executive Officer at Sony Online Entertainment, said in a Twitter message that, “We are over 1000% of our pre-F2P concurrent numbers.”
He added that “We’re very aware of the long queues and other issues. We’re on it” and, also, that, “We’re working on adding more hardware and working on our servers so we don’t have them.”
On November 1 DC Universe Online implemented the move to the free-to-play model, which allows any interested player to get in and see what the game has to offer with no restrictions and encourages those who get involved with the experience to pay to get extra content.
On November 3 the CEO of Sony Online Entertainment announced that 120,000 new players had joined the game in the two day interval and that the number of concurrent users had gone up by 400 percent, which is a pretty impressive feat for a MMO.
The numbers are linked to the PC version of DC Universe Online and Sony has not offered any information about the game is doing on the PlayStation 3 home console.
DC Universe Online is now part of a long list of titles who have launched with high hopes, perhaps even aiming to challenge the World of Warcraft MMO from Blizzard, and have ended up needing to go free-to-play in order to keep player numbers up.
The game allowed players to design their own superhero character and then play alongside well known DC Comics heroes as they solve quests and tackle superpowered villains.
Recently another free-to-play MMO, LEGO Universe, announced that it would be closed down in early 2012.