DC Universe Online went free-to-play this week. As we pointed out in an earlier post, the excitement on Facebook suggested the transition would be big hit. It turns out Sony Online Entertainment saw a massive influx of new players on the PC side. SOE president John Smedley announced on Twitter DCUO had more than 120,000 new PC registrations within the first two days of going free-to-play. No numbers were given on the PS3 side, but they’re most likely way up as well. Unfortunately, SOE was not fully prepared for the onslaught of new players. Since Tuesday, DCUO servers have had difficulty supporting the sudden increase of players.

It seems like every time a popular game with a multiplayer component comes onto the scene, it quickly buckles under the pressure of its community. Battlefield 3 has joined the ranks of online games that have stumbled out of the gate. The official Battlefield 3 Twitter account has informed its adoring public the Battlefield 3 servers for Xbox 360 are down.

Final Fantasy XIV Following the disaster in Japan, Square Enix decided to shut down servers for Final Fantasy XIV, Final Fantasy XI and PlayOnline to conserve the country’s power supplies. Square Enix didn’t initially know when the servers would be brought back online, but a date was set earlier today. Expect to jump back into the MMO action on March 25, 2011.

Homefront is getting hammered with bugs at the moment. Many users were complaining about console freezes and other problems involving multiplayer. A patch was released for the PS3 version of Homefront that was supposed to iron out the biggest problems. Some problems are still hanging around, but THQ and Kaos Studios are keeping players informed every step of the way. Over the weekend, THQ listed a bunch of problems that the Homefront developers are working on, along with some possible fixes.

Electronic Arts will be conducting a massive purge on a wide number of older games. You’ll still be able to purchase them somewhere, but their online components will be shut down. EA is doing this so that it can use more resources to support recent games. I mean, are you really still playing NCAA Football 07 anyway?

After a stellar first showing in 2006 and many delays thereafter, Afrika finally arrived in North America in the Fall of 2009. It was met with mixed reviews with most critics giving it below average, to average scores. Now two years later after its Japanese release, Sony has decided it’s time to bid Afrika’s online community goodbye.

A moderator’s post on the official Lord of the Rings Online forums indicates that the MMORPG will soon be adding new servers to their existing 11. This is most likely in anticipation of an influx of new players when the game moves to a free-to-play (F2P) format in fall 2010.

Sega has just announced that it will be shutting down the Phantasy Star Universe servers for the PC and PlayStation 2 versions of the game on March 31, 2010. If you have the game and enjoy playing it online, better get in your multiplayer moments and build some memories before it all goes away.

The beginning of the end will begin on Friday, January 29, 2010, at the same time as the MAG+ event. The event will take place like always, but it will also be the day when people can enjoy the online aspects of the PC and PS2 versions of Phantasy Star Universe for free. Sega stops selling subscriptions to PC and PS2 owners on Friday as well. After that, there’s two months of freedom. The PC and PS2 owners can enjoy their last moments with the game without having to worry about paying for the online portion.

Sega has also confirmed continued support of the Xbox 360 version of Phantasy Star Universe. The same announcement that proclaims the end of the PC and PS2 versions promises new life for the Xbox 360 version, in the form of new content…

In both civilian and military communities worldwide, the world of video gaming is expanding more and more, especially with popular massive multiplayer online titles. MMO games such as World of Warcraft, War Hammer and Call of Duty 4 have become a way of life and provide people with ways to meet other people who share their love of interaction through gaming.

One of the major fascinations of MMO games are the teams and communities players form while online, and a kinship a soldier often has to leave behind when he deploys. Ed Hale, a former member of 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, now a corporate executive officer for CompeteSoft, Inc., offers free online gaming servers to Soldiers across the globe.

Hale, who graduated from West Point in 1971, said the idea for the community gaming concept came to him after finishing his five-year enlistment.“The people I worked with at Fort Bragg forged some of the most vibrant memories I carry with me, even today,” Hale said.

But after leaving the service as a ranger and infantryman, he said trying to find a career in an unstable computer industry made it hard to maintain a career, with one job layoff after another…

Christmas 2007 wasn’t the season for Xbox Live. If you remember, and I’m sure you will, Xbox Live was out of commission for about two weeks due to Microsoft’s servers not being able to handle the onslaught of users, leaving quite a lot of Xbox Live paid subscribers a bit angry.

The 2008 holiday season won’t see the same problem, at least that’s what Aaron Greenburg is promising in an interview with Kotaku: “We’ve built a lot of infrastructure, a lot of behind the curtain no one sees. This is something that Microsoft is good at. We are well prepared for the type of growth we expect this holiday. We will have people…