Bad Company 2 gunning for Modern Warfare 2

EA hopes to capture all those gamers who are angry with Infinity Ward over lack of dedicated server support

Written by Andy Griffiths, 11 November 2009

Joystiq are reporting that John Riccitello is talking up Bad Company 2's potential in the PC market. EA's CEO discussed DICE's next title at a quarterly sales meeting and referenced "deep new online play with dedicated server support", which he hopes,"will put Battlefield in head-to-head competition with Call of Duty for quality and online gameplay."

Corporate sniping aside it does seem as though DICE have extra development resources for the PC version of Bad Company 2, in an effort to fill a Modern Warfare 2 shaped hole.

We have no doubt that there are enough players angry about the omission of dedicated servers, but we doubt they are willing to flock to a console centric shooter. The Battlefield series has a long standing on the PC platform, but the original Bad Company only appeared on consoles. Why should PC gamers get excited over what is effectively a port?

PCGZine Issue 16 For our latest Battlefield coverage, click here to download PCGZine Issue 16 for free."On the PC, it's a PC version, which is getting that same treatment, and then also a little bit more as PC users are generally used to a different type of experience than console users are, and we recognize that and we want to make sure that we give that to the PC market," Explained Bad Company's associate producer, Gordon Van Dyke.

Mr Van Dyke also teased full mod support, with even a hint about a future community based toolset, "Once we start getting there and the engine gets to a level where we can release tools that are easy for our own guys to use, and then easy for people publicly, then we'll get into that and we'll really start to focus on it."

We played Bad Company 2 at a recent EA press event and it was a lot of fun. It's refreshing to hear a developer discussing the potential of the PC platform, instead of just talking about the promise of consoles.

That said, we do wonder at what point dedicated server support became a feature and not a pre-requisite of PC gaming.

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