Mechwarrior Online European servers are now operational

Piranha Games announced yesterday that, nearly two years after Mechwarrior Online went live, European servers are now operational. The studio said the new servers will improve ping times for European players by an average of 50 percent.

Mechwarrior Online is entering its "final phase of feature implementation," Piranha said in a statement, which includes leveling the competitive playing field worldwide by rolling out new server locations. European players account for nearly 40 percent of the total Mechwarrior Online player base, according to the handy infographic below. They also have a better win/loss and kill/death ratio than North American players, and for some reason seem to have a preference for the Lyran Commonwealth.

Mechwarrior Online has evolved at a slower pace than was expected in the early days—Community Warfare, for instance, was "projected" to be added within 90 days of the launch of open beta, which began in October 2012, but wasn't actually implemented until more than two years after that—but it does seem to have picked up the pace since Piranha acquired the full rights to the game from original publisher Infinite Games and committed to "more efficient development."

Mechwarrior Online European server infographic

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.