Star Wars Battlefront 2 Dev Says Player Count 'Just A Number'

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is still in development, but it seems the player count for multiplayer matches will stay the same, despite some fans feeling there isn’t enough going on during a game. This news comes from a post by a DICE developer on the Star Wars Battlefront subreddit.

In a thread regarding the player count, numerous Battlefront fans who played the pre-alpha shared similar thoughts that the first phase of the Theed map felt sparse, with few other players around. “This isn't that I just want more players to have some sort of huge battle it's that I want slightly more players to fill the map,” redditor yaboibacon55 wrote.

The top comment of the thread is from Dennis Brännvall, the design director for Battlefront 2. Brännvall said the team is aware of the feedback and is working to make the Theed map feel more alive and active, but adding more players isn’t the solution.

“As for the player count... we've proven it to ourselves time and time again that player count is just a number. Both for the first game and now the second game we've had players try out Battlefield Conquest, followed by Galactic Assault in Battlefront 2, but we turned off the scoreboard preventing you from seeing the number of active players on the server,” Brännvall said.

Adding more players might actually make the opening phase more dull. This is because there are only a limited number of power-ups, meaning there would be more competition with added players.

“Theed is supposed to be far more intense in the Throne Room than at the very start of the streets, but it should never feel dull,” said Brännvall. “The solution is not to up the player count though, as the direct result of that is that we'll be able to have less elite troopers and heroes/villains on the field (due to performance and memory, with more troopers on the field) and you'd have less chance to become something awesome during gameplay (as more teammates will be fighting for less hero/elites/vehicle slots).”

Brännvall closed his comment by mentioning DICE is still tweaking the level to ensure the street phase of Theed will be exciting to play every time.

In other words, video games are incredibly complex to make and simple fixes like adding more players doesn’t always work.

So what do you think? Are you bummed to know Star Wars Battlefront 2 isn’t going to be increasing its player count for online matches? Do you agree with Brännvall’s reasoning? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.