[dalore]

EC2 is actually broken down into a few completely different clouds. If they only used one EC2 location they would be silly.

I agree, they really shouldn't use/need their private servers, but I suspect its a data control issue.

[smokinn]

I doubt it's a question of data control.

EC2 is significantly more expensive than running your own servers so it's a good idea to keep close to your base load on your own servers and then just scale up/down as necessary with EC2. This way you're optimizing your cost per player.