When it launches this October, EA’s Battlefield 2042 has been confirmed to use bots to fill its huge 128-player servers. During its gameplay trailer reveal at E3 2021, the game’s large-scale, hectic battlegrounds that a new generation of console hardware will allow for was shown off. Now, it appears that at least some of those specialists might end up being AI-controlled.
Having bots in fill spaces in a multiplayer server is nothing new, especially for EA. Both of its Star Wars Battlefront game utilize bots to make less populated servers feel more alive. Game modes like Conquest and Breakthrough are the Battlefield series’ bread and butter, sometimes causing players to struggle to find servers hosting other modes. That can be a frustrating experience for some players, and it seems that EA and DICE have a battle-tested solution in mind.
In its attempt to fix this, EA has told The Verge reports that it “will be backfilling those servers with bots to keep games populated” and that, at least for the moment, there is “no plan to let you turn that off.” Human players will always take priority over bots, however. During peak playtimes (should Battlefield 2042‘s launch go as expected), players will most likely find themselves in fully populated 128-player games. The Verge specifically mentions that this “applies to both the Conquest and Breakthrough modes.”
Of course, how many bots end up in a lobby – if any at all – depends on a variety of factors, namely, “region, platform, and how many real-life humans are available to join up.” If being stuck playing with bots does not sound appealing, EA says that other modes will not be subject to this decision. Battlefield 2042 will have several new game modes, such as Hazard Zone and an unnamed, mystery mode to be revealed soon, but how different those modes are could ultimately result in a split playerbase. If that’s the case, bots could theoretically work their way into more modes further down the line if players don’t mind them in Conquest and Breakthrough at launch..
If EA implements crossplay in Battlefield 2042, though, then this could end up being a nonissue. At the time of writing, crossplay plans for the game have yet to be shared, but they don’t appear to be on the table. Bots in Conquest and Breakthough will just be a part of life in Battlefield 2042 until then. If these bots are anything like the ones from Star Wars Battlefront II, then they will be little more than moving target dummies, but it is always possible that they have been tweaked this time around for Battlefield 2042.
Battlefield 2042 will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.
