Destiny 2 is coming to PC, which is great. But something PC gamers won’t be that thrilled by, particularly those with limited upload or gamers in developing countries, is the part where the game won’t be using dedicated servers.
In a lengthy interview with PC Gamer, Bungie’s head of PC David Shaw confirmed that server infrastructure for the game was “complicated” and that they “do not have dedicated servers for Destiny 2 on PC” – and presumably not on consoles either.
Not having dedicated servers isn’t exactly a death knell for a game, particularly in 2017. It was a major scandal when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 announced it was abandoning dedicated servers for player-hosted matchmaking lobbies, and a cabal of players responded by making Steam groups designed to boycott the game. The rage didn’t last long though, and player-hosted lobbies are far more common these days.
Still, it’s an issue if you have limited upload speeds. Only having to host up to 8 players, instead of the maximum of 12 that Destiny 1 could have, makes life a little easier. But that doesn’t include the extra upload required for voice communications and anything else that might want to hoover up your internet at the same time.
Shaw clarified later in the interview that Bungie knows they have to “be legit on day one” with the PC port:
Focusing on things like up to 4K resolution, uncapped framerate, mouse and keyboard support with full key remapping, adjustable FOV, tons of graphical options, support for different aspect rations—21:9—and text chat. You know, a ton of different things that are those feature sets that, when people bitch about a game just being a console port, those things are missing.
Ultrawide resolutions, full key remapping and an adjustable FOV are good things. I’d like to see someone quiz Bungie on accessibility issues as well, an area that an awful lot of games fail to get right, and hopefully you’ll be able to input specific values for things like mouse sensitivity (rather than having to adjust a slider).
But dedicated servers are one of those hot button topics that immediately enrages some gamers. It’s understandable to some extent, although I’m fortunate enough that my internet connection should be able to handle things without too much trouble.
You can read the rest of the interview with Shaw over at PC Gamer. It’s interesting, if only for what isn’t said and the questions that aren’t answered. But E3 is just around the corner, and there’s a beta to contend with as well.
Comments
30 responses to “Destiny 2 Won’t Use Dedicated Servers On PC”
so peer hosted? argh like that worked well with ME:A.
It generally works ok for ME:A, but For Honor less so especially as its competitive
hmm I’d rate my experience with ME:A as being 50/50 granted that game did have issues that wasn’t related to the host being in NA or somewhere in EU hah
ME:A multi is similar to ME3 multi in that it’s something of a tragedy. It’s amazing when it works, which is why it’s just so unforgivably baffling that they’ve chosen to make it not work so fucking furstratingly often.
It really says something about the game when most folks I know don’t bother because more often than not they wouldn’t get any rewards for a match because they couldn’t stay connected til the end of them.
If ME multi were actually reliable, it’d be the best multi game I’ve played in years.
Sadly, it’s the definition of unreliable.
So par for the course with Destiny 1? Really does look like its just an over priced stand alone dlc.
Amen to that…haven’t heard about weapon/armor customizations as yet and if we get the same rng bullshit from D1, then no fucking chance I’m getting it.
dude, chill, they literally showed the first gameplay yesterday. It’s a long time between now and release date, I’m sure they’ll start doing more livestreams to cover those topics over the coming months.
Pathetic. A triple A game without dedicated servers is just blatant cost cutting.
Seriously, how could anyone support this? They just killed the game on PC before it was even released.
Watch activsion try increase sales by doing garbage cross game promos.
Any word on Patrol and Raid group sizes?…all this talk of it being bigger, so we better have more than 3 in a fireteam…
no official raid size word but there was a glimpse at a 6 man fireteam so probably still 6. They said EDZ is twice as big as the previous biggest patrol area
Thanks but never had an issue with the size of the joint, it was being limited in group sizes that sucked. Now all this talk of clan support and you get to go with 3 clan members into pvp?
Somebody bring back MAG…
planetside 2 maybe?
kinda makes its sound like they really use Blizzards Servers for real instead of just the authentication and social aspect, otherwise if its all peer2peer or player hosted like borderlands and such then cheating and hacking with rampant
What does a dedicated server even mean in the context of Destiny? Isn’t it an MMO?
The same thing it could mean for other MMOs: shard/world/realm/instances are hosted externally to players.
Ideally the Destiny 2 lobby/overworld and any instances would be dedicated. Will likely be the case for the former, while the latter relies on peer hosting.
They mean dedicated servers for a region. For example World of Warcraft has dedicated servers for Europe, USA east/West coast and Australia in each of those locations. They dont mean dedicated servers like you see on CSGO or Battlefield.
Welp… That just killed all my interest. Thanks for saving me the money by telling us early, Bungie!
Yeah im glad that was mentioned before preordering, I have just lost a lot if interest
I havent played before, I was expecting an online MMO experience, not just hosting another multiplayer game for whom ur playing with
Sick of these gaming companies that cheap the fuck out then have microtransactions for stupid shit that costs more than a monthly sub
Cheating is going to be terrible in crucible then.
For all of the collective outcry in the comments, I’m willing to bet all of these people will get it eventually, and the naked harpies of Activision will happily roll around in their money. O_O
Remember the Modern Warfare boycott?
If you get this, you are the reason why gaming is absolute trash. You are supporting these cut costing shitty practices.
hmm maybe, right now it’s firmly in the wait and see camp… but I’m a huge sucker for Blizzard cross promotion… and I’m not kidding here, i dropped $90 for Overwatch CE for the WoW and Wings (D3)… it just worked out I really enjoy Overwatch after all haha
How does this even work for the sandbox stuff? I forget what they called it, but the bits where you would wander through the non-mission-specific zones feeling really bored and encounter random people. If it’s P2P does that just not happen any more?
It was always p2p and so limited in group sizes. In Patrol (yeah those boring areas you wandered around in) you could only have a fireteam of 3 and max of about 12 in a server group…
Was hoping with all this talk of it being bigger and better on current gen would give us bigger groups…so far it looks like a miss.
o sweet, so i can just host a game, ram inject values like a mad man and unlock everything in 5 min. nice.
Same as the Division? That game lasted a long time on PC. Hackers will go crazy.
Yeah my hype was just killed…. If an indie game like player unknowns can use dedicated servers then there is no reason a AAA game with a massive budget can’t have them… That’s just cost cutting at the expense of the player… I don’t buy Ubisoft games specifically because they refuse to use dedicated servers… Fuck you Bungie. Been a long time fan since the original Halo.. waited in line for 5 hours to get Halo 2 before it sold out.. P2P was acceptable in the early 2000’s. It’s not anymore. Dedicated servers is an absolute must for PC. This game is doomed before it even released.
Sweet they just made my decision easy. Not going to buy after the For Honor debacle…
Going the Ubisoft route, well it doesn’t work and I’ve stop buying their game’s because that’s the main problem. Time to add another company to the do not buy list.