BioWare has announced plans to shut down its Asia-Pacific servers for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Players on those servers will be migrated to North American servers, in what SW:TOR Community Manager Eric Musco calls a " multistep process ".

The move comes as a response to complaints that servers in the Asia-Pacific region are inadequately populated. Fans suggested several ways to address the problem, with BioWare eventually opting to remove the servers altogether. Musco says the studio will need to update the Free Character Transfer System in order to cater for recent game updates, as well as the forthcoming 2.0 update and Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion pack, so it may be some time before the transfer is completed.

Once those issues are addressed, players on APAC servers will be offered Free Character Transfers to the buzzing North American servers of the same gameplay type. "Mastar Dar'Nala (PvP) will transfer to The Bastion (PvP), Gav Daragon (RP-PvE) will transfer to Begeren Colony (RP-PvE), and Dalborra (PvE) will transfer to The Harbinger (PvE)," the community post reads.

"We are moving as quickly as we can to make this happen, but we want to make sure this is a smooth transition, so it will take some time," Musco said.

The move comes weeks ahead of the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion's April 14 release .