Originally Posted by
Maelkjar
I wonder if the cost they save for mainetenance+whatever by moving the servers actually outweighs the lost subs they suffered after doing it. It might only be my gut-feeling, but I think they basically screwed all east-european players with that, at least that's my explaination for the harshly declined numbers from that region.
In the long run those subs might have been cancelled anyway because of the game's slow progression, the ignorance of problems such as rage merge/transfers but that's another story. I still think they shot themselves in the foot with the move in terms of finances, though I obviously have no proof on that one.
I do remember how they announced it back in the day, though. They mentioned a "test phase" which turned out to be the fullscale move from day1, never even intending to get/heed any feedback on it first. Gotta love that!