Battlefield 3 On Console Will See Player Cuts
DICE noted in an interview with Gamezone (via CVG) that the console versions of Battlefield 3 will make cuts in the number of players allowed in multiplayer to 24, down from 64 on the PC. This cut will hit Xbox 360 and PS3 players hard, and DICE’s head Patrick Bach explains the situation.
“The biggest difference between the PC and console version of Battlefield 3 is that we have 64 players on PC and 24 players maximum on console. The rest is more or less the same: we use the same engine, the same technology, the same animation system, the same lighting system. Our aim is to give the player the exact same experience and not try to dumb down the console version. If you want the same quality of game, I would say it’s really, really hard. We tried to get more players in [to the console version] but then you need to scale down all the graphics, scale down all the destructibility, and sometimes you need to scale down all the map sizes. Everything is a compromise on: where do you cut? You could argue that other games do [fewer] players as well. There are games that do less, and there are games that do more. We don’t see games that have more players as a better experience, so having more players per se doesn’t automatically give you a better experience.”
In the interview he touches on the fact that the player cut is the only real issue that saw a decrease when producing the game. He didn’t mention that the game would only run in 720p on the systems, though I think he knew that we’re already aware of that. Still, a cut in online online players will hit the game hard. Multiplayer is a huge factor in bringing players to the Battlefield series, and limiting those players will limit title sales. Don’t you think?
