Offloading: Planetside 2 set to drop support for 32 bit OSes

If there's one thing SOE's president John Smedley likes to do, it's dropping vast amounts of tantalizing -and sometimes cryptic- update tidbits through Twitter concerning all the developers' latest endeavors. This time, Smedley's could barely wait a whole day before informing everyone that SOE had just decided to move Planetside 2 to 64 bit completely.

64 bit operating systems have been in widespread use for quite some time now, but many programs still run in 32 bit and PC manufacturers have had a tendency in the past to use 32 bit operating systems in lower end PCs. However, it seems as though the era of 32 bit is finally coming to a close, at least in the gaming sector. According to a Steam Hardware Survey taken this January, 78% of Steam users utilize a 64 bit operating system. Smedley reaffirmed this conclusion when he later revealed only 6% of Planetside 2 players were actually playing on a 32 bit operating system.

When asked whether the move to 64 bit would increase Planetside 2's performance, Smedley replied by stating that since 64 bit allows you to use more memory, in theory it would perform better although Smedley did not want to promise anything until the team had tested the changes. In fact, Smedley says it would actually fix the MMOFPS number one crash, which is when the game runs out of usable memory.

No word as to when SOE plans to drop support officially, but if you enjoy Planetside 2 and for some reason still don't have a 64 bit OS, it may be time to join the other 78% and soon.