In a few days, the gap between North American and European gamers will become much narrower. NCsoft, the publisher of the sci-fi online role-playing game Auto Assault, has announced it will combine the North American and European servers into one this week, due to feedback from the game's players.

The merging of the two servers will occur on Thursday, July 13, and it will join players from the two continents. The location of the new server, to be dubbed Nexus, will be in North America, the company said.

"The Auto Assault player base has asked to be able to play on one combined server," the company said in an announcement on the Auto Assault Web site. "We have concluded that this is a great idea. The merge would increase the server population greatly and offer the players a much more satisfying and diverse gameplay experience."

Although the two regional game servers for Auto Assault will be merged, localized message boards, chat channels, and in-game language settings will continue to be offered in English, French, and German. NCsoft promised that more details regarding the changes are "forthcoming."

In other recent news from NCsoft, the MMO publisher's Austin, Texas-based operation laid off nearly one-quarter of its workforce last month.