Official DICE servers disappear from Battlefield 3

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Console gamers are reporting that the official DICE servers for Battlefield 3 multiplayer have been completely withdrawn, with the game now largely playable only on private rented servers.


Publisher Electronic Arts and developer DICE recently made the bold move of introducing a server-rental scheme to console versions of Battlefield 3. At $30 for 30 days, these servers don’t come cheap, but this hasn’t stopped the Battlefield community from signing up in droves.


Initially there were plenty of official DICE and EA servers running concurrently with the new private servers. Over the past week, however, console players have noticed the official servers disappearing, to the point where DICE-managed servers are no longer visible on either PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.


Running a search on the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 this morning — by looking for the prefix P24 and the letters PRGM — I managed to track down just 17 EA-run servers. I could not find a single official DICE server. Compare this to the hundreds of private servers that were up and running, with names such as “Heaven & Hell,” “Guerilla_hilbily’S SERVER” [sic], and “Just 4 Fun 24/7” — most of which were completely empty. Anything with the word DICE in the title was simply a rented server with the official name dropped in by the host.


Of the 17 EA public servers that I did find, eight were running Rush mode, while the remainder were hosting Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, or Squad Rush games. I could not find any official servers hosting a round of Conquest, the traditional mainstay of the Battlefield franchise.






Battlefield 3 players are, perhaps understandably, up in arms about what appears to be a lack of official support for the game. Participating in an AMA (ask me anything) with DICE community manager Daniel Matros, Reddit user hilkito said: “I haven’t played in over two weeks because of it; abusive admins and 2000% ticket servers are everywhere and I can’t seem to find a normal server with vanilla BF3. I thought Rent-a-server was not going to affect my habits of gaming, but it seems I was wrong.”


Fellow poster ohtobiasyoublowhard also raised concerns about EA’s reliance on paid-for servers: “I’m looking for official DICE/EA servers on the Xbox 360. There are none. You took that out, and let kids pay for your hosting.”


Matros responded to this issue in the AMA. While all of his comments are no longer visible in the original thread, they have been archived elsewhere on Reddit. “There is only so much physical space and digital space where you can have servers. The community requested [a rental program] and we delivered,” wrote Matros. When asked whether the removal of DICE servers was permanent, he replied: “Everything in the wonderful world of Battlefield is dynamic ”
Matros went on to say, “I’ve heard this for a while now and the feedback has gotten louder. This is definitely something I will raise when I get back into the studio tomorrow.”




By implementing the rent-a-server scheme, then withdrawing nearly all official servers, it is looking very much like EA has handed control of Battlefield 3 over to the community. This comes at a price though, both financially and in terms of gameplay. While private servers are flexible, they are open to abuse, and reports abound of players being kicked, or banned, en masse for simply outplaying their hosts.


Some BF3 users now claim they are renting servers simply to recreate the kind of experience they were having previously on Battlefield 3, featuring regular length rounds and a balanced range of maps. With EA seemingly no longer providing such a service, the community is having to pay for this privilege from its own pocket.


This is not the first time that Battlefield 3 has run into trouble. Teething problems at launch led to lengthy downtime for the multiplayer portion of the game. In January, there were also prolonged connection issues, and it took over 100 days to implement a fix for broken voice chat in the PS3 version of the game.


Whether the current situation will continue is unclear. The @Battlefield Twitter support account has been inundated with questions about the lack of DICE servers, and the response when questioned about the issue has been, “It has been noted and sent to the devs.”


GamesBeat has reached out to EA for comment on this issue and is awaiting a response.

Fuck off BF3, hello Starhawk.

[Fon]

I noticed this a while back. I'm not surprised that they did this though and can't say I blame them for removing their official servers since a really good number of gamers rent their own servers.

[mickice]

Fuck off BF3, hello Starhawk.

So true. Picked it up last night xD

[DreDayDetox]

I got scared for a second because I thought they would force people to buy a server to play online, further limiting online play.

[Terminator 101]

God, so almost the same thing that happened to Killzone 2 is going to happen to BF3. Except that KZ2 servers are free.

Eventually majority of the servers on KZ2 became 32 people chaos games, while almost all maps where built for 20 players at most.
Most servers also had same 2-3 maps over and over, and servers with vanilla settings (all game modes and reasonable times for each) pretty much disappeared. Or maybe they were there I don't know, since my filters were always set to 18 to 22 people max.
Servers that had my favorite settings completely disappeared so I left the game forever.

While the exactly same thing won't happen in BF3, I am sure it will be similar. All I want to play is Rush with default ticket number on all maps. Something tells me that servers with these settings will become very rare or hard to find.

I am casual gamer. I want to play, not search for 10 minutes for the server that has the settings I like.

I have dream: A game very similar to either KZ2 or BC1 with matchmaking playlists. I was wrong to think that BF3 would be such game.

[radgamer420]

Fuck off BF3, hello Starhawk.

I guess I'll trade in BF3 towards Starhawk.

[$Greatness$]

I knew EA would find a way to burn the community. We gotta stop feeding these people or they'll continue and make it worse! And to think I was going to grab this game again for $25. Please...

[Fenix]

I really fail to see the issue here, though back even in the SOCOM days I never really played in official lobbys

[Funeralfog]

i thought they said that they will concentrate on MoH now. either way i still love me some BF3

[SupraGaz]

What a load of shite.

It's not even been released a year and they've just abandoned it.
The official servers were the only servers I used because I found I always had a better connection, decent map rotations and the right number of ticket counts.

So in the future when more and more people gradually leave BF3 and are not buying servers, I'm guessing that's it for the multiplayer?

[Wrath]

What a load of shite.

It's not even been released a year and they've just abandoned it.
The official servers were the only servers I used because I found I always had a better connection, decent map rotations and the right number of ticket counts.

So in the future when more and more people gradually leave BF3 and are not buying servers, I'm guessing that's it for the multiplayer?

You mad?

There are new maps coming out in June as well as in Winter 2012 along with new weapons and skins. Nobody abandoned anything.

[Wrath]

Are you kidding? I love this game. This is the best game i ever played. But i never had any problems with their servers...

free web hosting sites

How can bots become so personalized? This is scary...

[Yuuichi]

MOH will be the same shit to. Very lame EA when your trying to pull people away from COD.

[SupraGaz]

You mad?

There are new maps coming out in June as well as in Winter 2012 along with new weapons and skins. Nobody abandoned anything.

And whats the point in all of that when its going to be on BS servers with stupid ticket respawns so people can gain xp as quick as poss. If they were still bothered about it they'd leave there offical servers running where people can have decent map rotations with each game mode with a appropriate amount of tickets.

[GalapagosaraY]

this is rather dissapointing for console gamers im not sure if the trend will happen for PC aswell but although i love the game i am always in a dilemma to start it up on my pc, everything surrounding this game is so frustrating. Bugs, battlelog browser compatibility, freezes, odd new updates and now maybe even servers, even finding servers on pc is rather hard since the search system never picks up more than 10-15 servers with good pings to choose from each time. And the PS3 community is actually the one thats playing the game the most i can understand their frustration

[*goo]

They've not abandoned it but they've cheekily cut costs and will likely actually profit from this as normally there's a 'royalty' they get from official resellers.

[Kuro]

i was gonna get this again to man damn..

[Wrath]

i was gonna get this again to man damn..

What?

[Kuro]

What?

Battlefield 3

[daLa]

What does it matter if there are no more DICE servers? there's still plenty of rented servers running on default settings and gameplay, some people are just too dumb to look them up.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

As I said...Good bye BF3, hello Starhawk bebe!

[daLa]

As I said...Good bye BF3, hello Starhawk bebe!

I sure enjoyed Starhawk, it's a great game no doubt, but doesn't even compare to BF3.

[keefy]

What does it matter if there are no more DICE servers? there's still plenty of rented servers running on default settings and gameplay, some people are just too dumb to look them up.

While that is true its not as easy as you think There is no filter for "tickets" or "vanilla/default gameplay" at least not on the PC version.
If there was a fool proof way to filter out the shit servers players wouldn't be complaining about it.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

I sure enjoyed Starhawk, it's a great game no doubt, but doesn't even compare to BF3.

I think you mean they can't be compared. They are different genres. Starhawk is the more interesting MP experience and will be my staple MP game now. I'm tired of 1000 ticket games.

[mudshark]

I think you mean they can't be compared. They are different genres. Starhawk is the more interesting MP experience and will be my staple MP game now. I'm tired of 1000 ticket games.

Come on man, BF 3 is awesome.