DICE explains Battlefield Bad Company 2 dedicated server rentals

by Ben Gilbert on Jan 16th 2010 6:30PM

One of the many volleys in DICE's Battlefield Bad Company 2 marketing campaign meant to sway Modern Warfare 2 loyalists towards its upcoming shooter was the promise of dedicated servers for PC players. That said, when the Swedish game development house recently announced a rental service for those interested in using said dedicated servers, some folks were less than thrilled.

According to producer Gordon Van Dyke in an interview with Eurogamer, the reasoning doesn't have to do with profits so much as protecting "the game's integrity on PC." Van Dyke also indicates that DICE's "authorized hosts" have already been chosen worldwide, though he notes that the studio "will see where the game goes and support it post-launch." At very least, PC gamers will get a chance to find out if the rental fee is worth it when the game goes into PC beta on January 28.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Source

Tags: bad-company-2, battlefield, battlefield-bad-company-2, dedicated-server, dice, ea, ea-dice, Electronic-Arts, gordon-van-dyke, multiplayer, online-multiplayer, pc

Reader Comments (80)

Lookin like a foo' with yo pants on the ground.

With your head turned sideways

Best version ever of that song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJrg_dPOEms

Better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ahjK1Urjg

Congrats MW2. You have ruined Dedicated servers for everyone. Now all these other developers know they dont have to use dedicated servers.

[banned]

Wait... they didn't say there won't be dedicated servers... they just said you have to pay for them. Which is normal.

@JacenSoloLives

"Want some cheese with that wine?

Seriously PC fanboys its about a time you guys gotta clue. PC gaming is dying. Its not relevant at all to devs and most of these publishing companies.

Hence why you're not getting any special treatment...

Too bad so sad...console gaming is the king of the hill."

PC gaming is not dying you idiot, it's reforming. Developers are looking to towards easy ways to prevent piracy without ruining the game. Steam, for instance, is a very good step forward. Also, a lot of devs look at indie and flash games, ones that everyone can play. I still prefer my PC over Wii,360, and PS3 because of the amazing service i still get. Console games are just catching up to the experience PC gaming has (PS3 and Wii both have mediocre voice chat support). Don't be an ass.

He's just mad because he can't play any sweet ass mods. :)

It doesn't matter to me if PC gaming is dying, as my computer sucks so much, I can only play games from 4+ years ago.

Oh I just come back from my vacation from India and here is lovely old Sprinkles to greet me.

[banned]

Sprinkles, do you ever stop to use that single brain cell as to why you continually get banned? I think its sad that you've been here for almost 2 years. I don't look for popularity at all, I'm a PC gamer on Joystiq for christ's sakes! And why is it that nobody else thinks that I am racist except mentally-ill you?

[banned]

I have no idea where you get that I'm after popularity here. My guess is that you are jealous that you are incapable of acting decently and not getting yourself banned, unlike myself. Don't worry, there is no conspiracy here. Your blaming everyone else except yourself.

"As for why I keep coming back you keep asking and I keep answering you. The problem is that you do not listen."

Doesn't that mean that something is wrong on YOUR end, not his?

This is the same policy DICE have had since BF2. To play on ranked servers, you had to play on "official servers," which are servers hosted by authorized server providers. Nobody played on unranked servers hosted in some kids laundry, so DICE probably figured there's no point opening up a security hole by distributing the hosting software for a feature nobody used.

Not worth crying about guys. It's business as usual.

This was the policy for 2005's Battlefield 2, hundreds of individual clans and gaming websites would pay for their own ranked servers. EA/DICE provide probably 20% of the ranked servers, while the rest are purchased.

Individual people don't rent servers, large clans and websites do. JUST PLAY Battlefield 2 on PC and you'll see EXACTLY how this works (and has always worked).

Hmmm... A compromise of sorts.

I can see both sides of the argument, but I applaud DICE for not shutting down the private servers idea completely.

However, this 'rental fee' better be pretty damn competitive.

Again, how is it different from games like counter strike? you want a server, you pay for it. And I'm willing to bet that server rental from dice will be cheaper than gameservers.com and probably pretty competitive with darkstarLLC.

With Counter-Strike, you have the option of setting up your own dedicated server on your own hardware, etc. That option is not offered by BFBC2.

Weapons and stuff!?! You don't say.

@Andrew
nobody played on these.

Server rentals were used for Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142. Servers were rented by clans and gaming websites, where they are allowed to have private slots and customize map rotation and scoring limits. If you play BF2 today, you'll see how this all works just fine (yes, people are still paying for rental servers for a game that is nearly 5 years old, and they've never really complained).

And so it begins - paying to play games we've already paid for. It's like paying up front for a hooker and then finding out she has hidden fees for every hour of fun. This is America, god dammit!

Your avatar is perfect for that comment lol.

Server space costs money. Sorry.

What are you talking about? Dedicated servers always cost money. Nobody gives away dedicated servers for free.

Can't help but to read that with a Scottish accent. Makes better to read.

Hookers usually charge by the hour. uhh..i mean....

I think you're confused about what a dedicated server is. They are never free to their owners, just to the users. This seems to be the same deal.

"Your the Man now dog!"

I still don't understand why the PC is getting a preorder-only beta. This close to release, it's not a beta; it's a demo, and the purpose of a demo is to sell to people who aren't yet convinced to buy the game.

if it's anything like the ps3 beta, the keys will be on fileplanet and all over their twitter page

Anyone who is a dedicated PC gamer would know noone really cares about Bad Company 2 (for the PC). On the PC side we're waiting for BF3 to come out. Until then I"ll be playing Bad Company 2 on my 360 and MAG on the PS3.

I've been waiting for ANY BF game for the PC since BF2142. This one looks like a decent update to BF2, while BF3 is still in the obscure far distance. All I worry is if they try to make this BFBC have a story like the first one did *shudder*

Every PC gamer I know, and a great number of them on the PC gamer forums I visit are very interested in BFBC2.

The only PC gamers who aren't interested in BFBC2 are the "pro BF2 players" who are scared that BFBC2 present a clean slate where their strafing skills and exploit mastery are no longer relevant.

Unless you're a "pro BF2 player" I imagine you're actually the odd one out on this.

No my friend just most PC gamers are also Steam gamers and there is plenty to keep us busy without worrying about Bad Company 2. And I'd say most PC gamers (those who can keep up with the hardware requirements) also have consoles and those same gamers most likely have more friends who own consoles over capable PC's. I personally have a great many close friends who are on Steam as well as Live/PSN but I'd say I'm a rarity in that regard. For a game like Bad Company which is a decidedly console crafted game I'm going to be getting it for the 360. Anyone who has the option should honestly considering the first one didn't make it to PC. It would drive me insane to play a console nerfed shooter on my PC, and I'm sure any dedicated PC gamer feels the same my friend.

Nothing about BFBC2 makes me see it as consolized. Unless they screw up the controls, it looks to me like an almost perfect mix of BFBC and BF2, in that except the game modes and planes, it seems to me to be like BF2 on the frostbite engine.

I just hope DICE finally found out how to make the guns feel as good as they do in the COD games. That is one reason I REALLY liked MW's mp, was because the guns just felt right.

So you are more into Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising than BF:BC2? Wow ... thats just crazy to me and I don't understand that one bit.

Personally I have no interest in it, but every other PC gamer I know is waiting on BFBC2, and almost every PC gaming blog won't stop posting about it.

If MW2 on PC hadn't been such a total mess, BFBC2 would probably have disappeared without trace, but as it is... it's looking like it'll be pretty popular.

what a dumb comment. speak for yourself. you think because BC1 didnt come out on PC everyone won't care about number 2. it is still battlefield all the way ansd the MP doesn't need a prequel. still better than anything else on offer as well. every single PC gamer who plays BF will play this and love every minute of it.

eh, these kind of servers are pretty standard for BF.

as long as it's dedicated i'm happy.

i want you back in my life, since the beta ended all i could do is think of the fun times we had playing RUSH in Africa. MW2 doesn't even cut it for my anymore.

Dude... it's Arica.. not Africa. >.>

Maybe he lives in Africa and was playing RUSH

its possible he was playinh Rush 2049 too

all hookers have sex in exchange for goods or services... exceptions aside.

If they didn't have sex for money, goods or services they wouldn't be hookers now would they?

And yet Sprinkles was actually thinking of buying the upcoming Final Fantasy MMORPG for the PC, since it hates the PS3 even more.

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DICE explains Battlefield Bad Company 2 dedicated server rentals

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

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