Battlefront is matchmaking-only to ensure "fair and even playground"

Battlefront 2

A while back DICE revealed that Star Wars Battlefront would use a matchmaking system to get players into games, with no server browser option. We wondered if it was an accessibility decision to cater to the more casually inclined general Star Wars audience. Sam recently had a chance to ask design director Niklas Fegraeus about that very matter. Here is what he said.

PC Gamer: You guys have announced you're not supporting server browsing in the game. This got a heated response from our readers. I was wondering if you could explain that decision?

Fegraeus: The nature of the matchmaker that we have is to just ensure that people have a fair and even playground. That's the thing. We want all Star Wars fans to be able to play this game and have a good time, and in doing that, we want to make sure that whenever players jump in, they get matchmade to players of their own level, their own skill, so they can have fun and a fair playing field. That's a really important thing when it comes to the quality of experience for the wide audience of Star Wars fans out there.

PC Gamer: Is it about Star Wars specifically in terms of its audience?

Fegraeus: Well, it doesn't have to be, it can have to do with any type of casual or less experienced audience, and so on. It's just a general statement of, what do you want the first experience to be, and what do you want the general experience to be when you play?

The matchmaking system will let you specify which map you'd like to play on, which goes further than Titanfall's endless playlist rotations. What do you think? Would a lack of server browsers hurt your experience with the game?

PCGamer

Hey folks, beloved mascot Coconut Monkey here representing the collective PC Gamer editorial team, who worked together to write this article! PC Gamer is the global authority on PC games—starting in 1993 with the magazine, and then in 2010 with this website you're currently reading. We have writers across the US, UK and Australia, who you can read about here.