While this year’s E3 had its fair share of bitter disappointments, there were many welcoming surprises and exciting previews for highly anticipated titles. One of which was the mind-blowing trailer for the upcoming Battlefield 2042, the seventeenth installment in the renowned Battlefield series. The idea of 128 players contesting in the massive PvP warzone with giant sand storms, ziplines, and vehicles galore seems like a concept that fans can get behind. On the other hand, not all of these 128 soldiers will be actual players. EA has announced it will be backfilling its servers for the All-Out Warfare modes with “AI soldiers” to keep games populated.
EA recently confirmed this information to The Verge, stating that while human players will take priority, up to 64 bots will be used to help fill in the slots. This decision could damper the experience of Battlefield 2042‘s multiplayer for some players, but the alternatives such as long queue times or empty battle arenas are much worse. Using bots in a PvP game to support a match’s population isn’t new for EA, as the Star Wars Battlefront reboots had bots alongside players to improve particular game modes. However, the competency of Battlefield 2042‘s bots is uncertain, but EA promised to provide more details soon on how these new bots will work.
Overall, this is a good call for Battlefield 2042, as it is a risky endeavor to develop a game around having 128 simultaneous players in a single server (64 players on PS4 and Xbox One). Just bear in mind that EA currently doesn’t have any plans to let you toggle the Battlefield 2042 bots in your matches.
