Battlefield 2042 will use bots to help fill its 128-player servers, according to EA

Battlefield 2042 had been causing rumblings and whispers on the internet since the beginning of the year, and its reveal trailer was nothing short of a global event. The battlefield had been outperformed by its Activision rival for the better part of this decade, but its devoted fanbase expected EA and DICE to make a comeback.

Following the lukewarm reception to the previous game in the series, Battlefield V, DICE has decided to go all-out with the next installment. The fact that the signature large-scale battles in multiplayer will support 128 players per match, with some AI assistance, was one of the first pieces of information to come from DICE.

The massive sessions in Battlefield 2042 will be filled with AI bots

While last-gen consoles will still only support 64 players (which is still a lot), DICE is making the most of next-gen consoles’ improved hardware. In the past, many games with large, sprawling multiplayer battles, such as Titanfall 2, used AI bots to fill in gaps and speed up matchmaking.

Players do not look forward to getting stuck in matchmaking because the goal is to get into a game as soon as possible. Waiting for other players to join in for up to a minute or a half in matchmaking isn’t the best-case scenario.

The problem is amplified tenfold in Battlefield 2042, thanks to its 128-player capacity. This is why, in the end, AI bots may be the best option. It’s still unclear how many bots will be present in each game, but DICE will try to keep them to a bare minimum.

According to The Verge, EA has spoken with The Verge about AI bots in multiplayer games, and a game can have up to 64 bots depending on the region, platform, and other players present. 64 appears to be the worst-case scenario, as 50 percent does not appear to be ideal.