Lack of Home Servers for Battlefield 3 Linked to Support Issues

DICE has offered an explanation for its decision not to allow players to use home servers to host Battlefield 3 matches, with developer Mikael Kalms saying that the company needs to limit the need for support and work with a limited number of server providers.

The post on the official Electronic Arts forums says, “The game server machines themselves will be run by a number of Ranked Server Provider (RSP) companies. We do not allow other companies to run game servers, or for other people to run game servers from home.”

The explanation for the move is that DICE aims to “strike a balance where there are game servers available across the globe, while still keeping the number of RSPs at a level where we can offer reasonable support to each individual company. Since we prefer to work with larger hosting companies, and we focus on countries where we have a larger player base, there will not be game servers available in every country on the planet.”

The developers have said that they are still working on the list of ranked server providers who will offer Battlefield 3 game servers on launch day and will make an official announcement when it is finalized.

Kalms also revealed that PunkBuster will be the technology that Battlefield 3 uses in order to eliminate any attempts to cheat inside the multiplayer matches, adding that the developers are making sure that the system does not conflict with any aspect of the game.

Battlefield 3 is powered by the Frostbite 2 engine, allowing players to take out cover and other landscape features in order to change the tactical situation on the field of battle.

DICE has also recently announced that the number of players that can take part in the Team Deathmatch game mode at the same time on the PC will be capped at 24.

Battlefield 3 is out in late October.