Runes of Magic launching with Aussie servers

The massively multiplayer online juggernaut--World of Warcraft--has been killing off competing titles for years now and is easily the game of choice for Western MMO players. It's a different story in the Southeast Asian (SEA) market, though. Despite being a money pit for the genre, competition is fierce in the region, and SEA MMOs have almost spun into a sub-genre of their own. The latest game from SEA to make the journey west--Runes of Magic--is slated to release in Australia shortly, with dedicated Australian servers.

The servers will be handled out of a data centre in Brisbane and will be the best choice for Australian and New Zealand players to use, although they won't be locked to international players. Alongside it will be an Aussie community team that will be tasked with looking after Runes of Magic players in the ANZ region.

Runes of Magic is free to play and relies on making money off microtransactions via the Runes of Magic Item Shop. It already has a player base of over 4 million players, so it's possible that it'll become the first major contender for World of Warcraft's throne in quite a while.

The Aussie servers for Runes of Magic are slated for October 6. Players who want to check out the game before they download it will be able to try it out at the Mana Bar in Brisbane on the same day.