The award-winning MMORPG Albion Online, which you can play among others on Steam, is known to come from Germany and has almost seven years under its belt. Nevertheless, believe it or not, the first server from Europe is only now being launched.
Update from April 30, 2024: Albion Europe, the first European server for Albion Online, is now open to all players. To ensure that the player experience is as frustration-free as possible at the beginning, the developers have implemented some measures.
These include an initially reduced size of the world, some items added to the marketplace, and restrictions on the black market. Details on these measures can be found in the official forum.
Update from April 25, 2024: The early access phase of the new European server for Albion Online has started. There will be no reset of your progress from now on. Those who have a founder’s pack for Albion Europe can start early – the cheapest option costs about 20 euros. The Free2Play release is scheduled for April 29, 2024.
The launch of the server is accompanied by a Twitch Drop campaign that runs until May 8, 2024, through which you can secure the Brown Alpaca. You can find more information about all this on the official website of the MMORPG from Germany.
What is so special about an EU server for Albion Online? The MMORPG comes from the German developer studio Sandbox Interactive, which is based in Berlin. The major release took place in July 2017 for PC, macOS, and Linux. Until now, there were only two servers: Albion West (located in the USA) and Albion East (which hosts the Asian adventurers).
On the official website of Albion Online, the developers have now announced that new servers for Europe and the MENA regions (Middle East and North Africa) will follow in April 2024. European players who have previously been on the West server will benefit from the following advantages on the new EU realm:
- Significantly improved connection speeds as well as a better ping.
- Event times optimized for Europe, such as faction wars or territory battles.
- The opportunity to start anew on a freshly started server along with other players and build a community there.
As soon as the server Albion Europe goes live, the previous servers will be renamed: Albion West will become Albion America, and Albion East will be called Albion Asia.
Be sure to try Albion Online in April
What is the current state of Albion Online? Just in March 2023, the developers of Albion Online provided the server for Asia. A few weeks later, Sandbox Interactive could announce new player records. At times, more than 300,000 players were on the two worlds. With the additional realms, the numbers are expected to rise further.
The author of these lines had some reservations during a developer presentation many years ago (it must have been during Gamescom 2015): A sandbox MMORPG with a mobile version, free-to-play model, and colorful, rather simply held graphics? It didn’t look really appealing at first glance.
Since then, however, Albion Online has evolved into a fully-fledged online role-playing game, which the developers are expanding and improving with great enthusiasm. The reward for this creative achievement: the award with the German Video Game Award for Best Mobile Game in 2022.
And Albion Online is also fun on the PC. On Steam, the MMORPG currently earns a “Mostly Positive” rating – with 79 percent positive reviews. When the Europe-optimized server technology and better-suited event times arrive shortly, April will be the perfect time for all genre fans to check it out via Steam, Mobile, and more.
If you want to learn more about how Albion Online plays, take a look at our preview test: Albion Online is the best sandbox MMORPG you have never played
