Over on Battlelog, DICE has announced that Battlefield 3 will be out for eight hours next week on the Xbox 360 and PS3 for maintenance and server migration.
According to the studio, they are migrating Battlefield 3 console servers to optimize their online service. For regular Battlefield 3 players, this won't impact you in anyway except for the downtime during the maintenance period.
The eight-hour maintenance period will start on January 28 at 22:00 PST (check here to see what time it starts in your timezone). As expected, online gameplay won't be available but they will send out a message once the servers are "starting to spin back up."
For those renting servers — particularly in the South U.S. region, you might want to read up on what this server migration is all about since that area's the most affected.
– Your current lease period will run its full course with no change whatsoever
– After the server migration you will not be able to extend your current lease or start a new lease in the “South US” region – we recommend that you use the “East US” or “West US” region instead
Not sure if this is because there are few people renting servers in the South region or if this is in preparation for Battlefield 4 which is expected to ship later this year. Regardless though, at least you know what to expect.
While the maintenance is scheduled next week, don't forget that this coming weekend (tomorrow), DICE is holding a Premium-only event that should be a treat for those who value team play over their K/D ratios.
