Backup servers?

[NightDagger]

Yeah, except that is how it works. Japanese players have a significant advantage when it comes to lag.

Not sure how you think that would even work. Going from japan to a server in california to us would be SLOWER than it would to just send the data straight from japan to us.

research is needed before blasting someone. Fibre optic cable is ran throughout the whole world. This cable allows instant data transmission. They also use this for retail. A good example is that when you make a purchase from a store they scan the bar code, when they scan it the signal is sent through fiber optic cable to a remote place like the Phillipe-ans, the code is then found on the central hub & sent back to the store, this is all done at the speed of light (since fiber optic is light signal turned into an electric signal at the end user). Through the use of transmission amplifiers they are able to use this for the man source of data transmission especially in Japan, China, Hong Kong.

The same is done for any kind of signal you would like to transmit. Whether that be internet data or sound, the fibre optic cable is meant to transmit a signal with zero break down in the signal quality.

So in short the world has evolved to the point that satellite signal is used for a lot of things, but fibre optic is the new & improved method of choice. The cost of setting up a system is relatively high but it has become more affordable over the years.

I personally use fibre optic cable in my house for my audio. My home entertainment system is all hooked up through fibre optic cable. The sound quality is just amazing, you hear sounds that you never knew were there. It makes listening to music, watching movies/t.v. ot just playing games much more enjoyable.

So in short, yes it is possible for them to do this with next to no lag. The main problem is that our ISP's are not as good as Japan's ISP's. Japan's internet company's are mostly using fibre optic cable to send the user their internet signal directly to their house. This is by far the fastest & most reliable method to send the internet signal. America & Canada also use fibre optic cable to send their users internet but it is not used by majority of the company's. This is what causes you lag in the game & it is this that gives the JP players an advantage on us.

As previously stated no one has confirmed that the servers in California are even for game play. I have been under the understanding that these are for version updates, logging in, player registration & the such. Heck they could just simply be for testing purposes only.