Pathetic Populations.

http://borderlinetactical.net/rsnc/world-population/?world_id=0&zoom=4&totalpop=true

A 2x XP weekend and this game still can't break 10k online at once.

ded gaem

It's interesting how how many people want to play the game and how many just want to try out new things or special events. On double XP times it's usually lots of more people than usual. When Amerish was released some servers had all 3 continents full and people had to queue in VR. Then the populations went back to normal.

members only dble Xp and also it easter Sunday

They they started breaking the game time and again, and populations started on the decline. March madness for PS2 was the death map, mission system, game breaking updates, etc. I suspect the area desync issue is all due to that missions system.

Meaning what? Everyone has the day off and should have plenty of time to play in between meeting family; that doesn't excuse saturday either.

SOE needs to get off their cash cow and do some real ADVERTISING of this game and bugfixing or this will become the trend. Remember when it first released how there were ads on steam, even when the game was updated? Do you see them now? No. Do you see the populations we had when that was happening? No. Don't give me the MUH FRESH RELEASE POP either because we would still be seeing atleast alittle more population if it was made apparent this game existed.

How many players are members? Like 5%?
Don't expect an increase in populations because of a member double XP.

On the other hand I agree, less and less people are playing. When Hossin comes out it would be time for more server merges.

They need make a real development, not only little weapons and stats.

The population Cobalt - that had been steadily rising since PU01 - crashed badly about 2 months ago when SOE started with the recent game-breaker updates. It's now hit the point that it's difficult to find fights at some times of the day.

At this rate server merges will be needed before the summer.

The OPs link doesn't show such a crash. More like inceasing populations at the beginning of the year and then a steady decline - which is normal I think.
And what game breaking updates? Just curious, havent played for 3 months when the new year started.

Before you start advertising you need to stop valuing the game for the wide smile reactions it receives, like the countless reviews we've seen, and look at it objectively and critically.

We were all there - big scale fights, combined arms, "persistent gameplay", faction flavors and loyalty, unique bases and hand crafted environment, variety of builds and set ups (you get to decide to suck or not to suck - pick wisely) and more I'm sure. That's what it was advertised.

Does the game deliver? Arguably. Should be mostly unanimous though. You can't please everyone, but that's why not everyone plays the game. You should focus on pleasing those that do, with no compromise.

Yeah the pops are dwindling. You don't have to look at the charts or numbers - you can feel that you don't see the same faces anymore, or you see outfits in lesser forces. You see new people but you know they won't last.
Cos people started waking up and doing what SOE should be doing - looking beyond the glitter.

I never looked at total population like that because I can't get that black line. (how do you do that??)

Pretty sad, the only mmofps (free even) has less players then War Thunder..
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

Server merges are long overdue. One east coast, one west coast please. If one cont fills up, then play on another continent. If that one fills up, which it won't, play on the third continent. Hossin will be out so we'll soon have three dead continents instead of just two.

PS1 had mechanics that worked the population dynamically. PS2 should have no problem implementing the same thing.

This game's whole advertising campaign revolves around the phrase "Can your shooter do this?". Well, if I only find <40 people to fight off-peak, then yeah. I can just load up BF3 or CoD and get a more polished experience. This is touted as an MMOFPS and SOE should be doing everything it can to sustain that competitive advantage.

Remember that most of the PS2 players don't use steam.

Probably main problem is nothing of interest has come out since the harasser. a lot of people have left because they got bored left.

Stats or its just assumption.

I use steam and that is how I started playing PS2.

I know. I didn't post that steam link to show the Planetside population.. The OP already did the correct numbers.
I posted that so people could compare it to other games.

Planetside 2 has only 4 times as many players as Farming simulator 2013 for crying out loud!

I remember when I played the game for the first time like 1 day after release. There were twice as many servers and they could hold 2000 players unlike 667 today (or is it per continent?) and the server I picked was full, Lithcorp. The populations around release must have been ~500% of what we have now.

Which accounts for 50.000.
Which is still very low. Team Fortess 2, a 4 year old game, has 76.000 players at once.
Counter Strike Global Offence, a game Valve made on the side, didn't even get that much coverage, has 133.000.

you know why? Because people like Valve. And people don't like SOE.

I think it's more than that.
Those games have very explicit personalities.
PS2 is contradicting. Things feel off and wrong.
Saying CS:GO and TF2 are polished would be simple, but very ambiguous. Yet still, they know what they are and people like less non sense. Something Planetside 2 has in abundance off.