Battlefield 4: getting 64-players online took priority over 1080p, says DICE

News by Dave Cook Contributor

Published on Dec. 4, 2013

Battlefield 4 multiplayer allows for 64-players online at once, and this was more important than getting the game running at 1080p. That's the view of DICE, which has spilled many tech-beans in a new interview.

It comes as DLC pack Battlefield 4: China Rising has raised the game's level cap, and our gallery of China Rising gameplay videos. Watch them through the link.

Now, speaking with Tom's Hardware, DICE's Johan Andersson conceded that hardware sacrifices had to be made to get 64-players running on PS4 and Xbox One.

"Yeah," he began, "Yeah, this is sort of a decision for each game team going forward that we work with, but before, getting to having 64 players and getting to 60 FPS was the most important thing because we wanted to bring this PC game experience that you have.

"And if you play Battlefield I think you'll agree that the actual game experience of playing on the 64-player server and everyone is interacting, I mean, and having a great frame rate is actually a significant difference from what we had on the current generation of consoles with only 24 players. This sort of enables more types of gameplay, and that was the most important thing for us.

"That sort of set the bar that we need to get there, and we did get there. Sure, we did still have to do a little bit of a compromise on the solution. We're not running at the full native 1080p; we're running a little bit lower resolution than that. But I think it was well worth those trade-offs in order to make sure that we can actually have the full sort of PC game experience overall being on there.

"And you're playing the games in a little bit different way. You're playing with the controller on a TV; you're not playing on a PC with a monitor. And it's very low-latency in that way where it's even more twitchy for example on a PC or a monitor that's even more sharp. I think it worked out quite well for us, but it's sort of a decision for each game going forward also like what makes more sense."

What's your view on The Battlefield 4 player-cap? Was 64-players more important than running at 1080p? Based on my awful experience of Battlefield 4's 24-player lobbies on Xbox 360, I'm inclined to say, "yes."

Via OXM.