Today marks the launch of DC Universe Online's MegaServers system. Once a week's worth of maintenance is complete, all of the game's servers will be combined into four worldwide MegaServers: US PC, US PS3, EU PC and EU PS3. The purpose of this move is to boost the populations of the servers so players can more easily find parties for Alerts, Duos, Raids, and Legends PvP.

The new servers will be arranged in phases. Think of them as a combination of all of the shared world areas of the game, such as Metropolis and Gotham. If you're in a different phase than a friend, you'll simply be able to jump to their phase. The MegaServer will always have at least one PvP phase and one PvE phase, and you'll be able to switch between PvE and PvP using the phase shifters in the Hall of Doom and JLA Watchtower. Every player on the MegaServer, regardless of phase or whether they're playing PvE or PvP, will be able to join you in all of the queued Alerts, Raids, Duos, and Arenas.

Of course, there will be conflicts regarding characters and League names. If you need to change your name, you'll receive a free Name Change Token in your in-game e-mail. If you have any problems, contact SOE Customer Support.

Expect a lot of downtime this week during the MegaServer switch. Each region and platform will be down for 10-14 hours for maintenance on specific days. Here's the schedule, which is subject to change:

• EU PC    8/8/2011              8:00AM PT/4:00PM CET
• US PC    8/10/2011            8:00AM PT/4:00PM CET
• US PS3  8/11/2011            8:00AM PT/4:00PM CET
• EU PS3  8/15/2011            8:00AM PT/4:00PM CET