ArcheAge’s misery just compounds lately: Gamigo has announced that it’s merging many of the gamers servers servers under the “server evolution” catchphrase. Across both the free-to-play ArcheAge and buy-to-play ArcheAge Unchained, the game will go from 13 to four servers. Unchained’s servers make the big crunch on March 4th, while the original game will lose its baggage a week later.
These are far from the only merges the game has undergone since its original launch in 2014; we saw large merges in both 2015 and 2017 as well.
While it’s bad news for the game’s health overall, active players will be even more upset since the merges – to fresh servers – will mean the loss of land spots and a whole new round of the land rushes for which the game is sadly infamous. Players should definitely check out the entire FAQ for the run-down on how to ensure they keep as much of their stuff as possible during the transition.
MMORPG vets will know that XLGAMES’ sandboxy ArcheAge secured an unfortunate reputation for pay-to-win shenanigans under Trion Worlds’ stewardship here in the west. After buying up the remains of Trion, Gamigo sought to improve that reputation when it launched 2019’s ArcheAge Unchained as a buy-to-play version of the free-to-play-with-cash-shop MMO. However, the launch of the game was bungled thanks to the messy ArchePass, and in May of 2020, Gamigo went back on promises about Unchained’s business model and began charging for additional content, arguing that paid DLC would ideally compensate for “deficiencies” in ArcheAge Unchained’s launch. Most recently, the game made permanent Unchained’s trial program and tried to run three ArchePasses at the same time – not exactly filling gamers with confidence.
