EA switching off all official servers.

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.

MH wrote:Wait is this new? I thought this was happening since the update.

That line about space issues lead me to believe rented servers are basically the original servers, but owned and altered by players.

Or did they buy new servers for every renter?

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.”

DRGN LRD 1213 wrote:I agree with greg. I am neither suprised... nor does it bother me as it seems to be others.

Ante wrote:It's actually even harder to find a good BF3 server on PC. If I had a penny for every 1000+ Heavy Metal 24/7 server I had to sift through in BC2...

JrTapia1991 wrote:"EA Switch's Off Free Servers for Battlefield 3 [pay to host] No M26 fix ETA"

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/621026-battlefield-3/62775383

they talk about it in there too...what I had to say,

damn....I agree with everybody pretty much.Not much more to be said that isn't already said.That's sad when people have to pay for vanilla servers that should be there anyway.I swear I never remember hearing people begging to pay for private servers anyway...and um....why should we have to pay for private custom games anyway?Hell Halo 3 for example is for free on custom games and Halo Reach and countless other games....gettin real burned out on BF3 anyway.It was cool while it lasted but this last patch really messed it up.

I agree with the guy who said pretty much my only hope for a shooter now will be Halo 4.Maybe I was too quick to drop Halo Reach,maybe I'll go back to that *shrug* .Or hell even BC2 I wouldn't mind going back to,but it just feels SO clunky.

Ante wrote:It's actually even harder to find a good BF3 server on PC. If I had a penny for every 1000+ Heavy Metal 24/7 server I had to sift through in BC2...

I can't help but laugh at you all. Every single last one of you that bought this tragedy. You all bought into the hype, you just HAD to have the next Battlefield, even though you know what the company is like and what they could do. Then they did it, and you cried. Well, I say good on EA. They've been abusing you with Day 1 DLC, cutting sections of the game out just to sell it back to you, doing everything they can to take all server control from the gamers, and run it P2P or ONLY official like Modern Warfare, and what did you do?

You bought into it. You installed their Spyware Origin, you smiled and you took it when they took a diarrhea dump on your games and stripped you of your rights. If you bought this game, you deserve everything that you get from them, the worse they treat you the more I will laugh at you. It might be a sorrowful laughter as I watch my most beloved hobby burn to the ground, but I'll sit in safety knowing I didn't pay into it. I never installed Origin, I never bought BF3, or Mass Effect 3, or Dragon Age 2, or any of the Modern Warfares after CoD4 (even if that's Activision).

I put my money where my mouth is, while all you folks every did was walk forward, lift your head up to the infernal anus of EA, smile, and get covered in all it's filth, just to get that half arsed update to the game series you love to play. Yet all you've shown them is that they can do this. They can take the rights away from Server admins, by making it so only "Official sponsored" server providers can even give you ranked servers. Well, take it, enjoy it, smear your face in the filth, and lap it up like a good little doggy. I'll stick to Team Fortress 2, thank you very much (which I got with the Orange Box, on release day).

Terry Corp. wrote:I have a big problem with this. Its a huge pain in the ass to sift through hundreds of shitty servers to find a reasonable one.

Last night I got jerked around a couple times. I played a couple rounds and in the third my team (Metal was there too) was kicking the Admin's teams ass, we had just got done capping the last flag on Tehran highway when all of a sudden I get switched. Even though their team had MORE players and I was in 1st place on my team, he decided to switch me to his team, not some guy who had just joined, he chose the guy who was in first place on the other team.

[Update: Electronic Arts has now provided GamesBeat with an official comment on this issue:

"DICE is not shutting down servers. If DICE-managed servers appear unavailable, it is because they have been rented and customized by players. DICE will continue to add servers and will reserve a percentage of servers for players who prefer to connect through DICE-hosted servers.