Following Modern Warfare 2 furor, EA DICEcalls out availability of player-run online multiplayer spaces forupcoming military shooter. Infinity Ward hit a chord with PC gamers last week when it revealed that the desktop edition of its highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 wouldn't support player-run dedicated servers.Instead, Infinity Ward plans to introduce IWNet, a service that tradesoff dedicated servers for a more structured, console-like onlinemultiplayer experience controlled entirely by the developer. Thoughbilled as an improvement in matchmaking, the move will prevent ownersof the PC version of the game from managing their own servers as theywish.
Bad Company 2 hopes to find good company online.
Following the news, many devout PC gamers expressed their discontent over Infinity Ward's decision en masse through an online petitionthat has secured more than 164,000 signatures. Capitalizing on thisfuror, fellow online PC shooter developer EA DICE has taken theopportunity to remind its fan base that dedicated servers will be apart of the Battlefield: Bad Company franchise's first iteration ondesktops.
"Since Battlefield 1942, DICE has used dedicated servers for all platforms," the developer wrote on its Web sitethis week. "This formula has worked well, and still works well, for usand for the gaming community. We have stayed true to this practice andwill continue this tradition into the upcoming title Battlefield: BadCompany 2."
As noted by DICE, Battlefield: Bad Company 2's online serverswill be hosted by a variety of a datacenters in locations throughoutthe world that players can rent space from. Accordingly, server ownerswill be afforded admin control over their rented space, "allowing youto manage your server, your way." Players will also be able to earnranks and rewards on dedicated servers, and they will also be coveredby anti-cheat software.
The sequel to last year's well-regardednew expansion of EA DICE's shooter franchise, Battlefield: Bad Company2 will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on March 2.For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.