A plea for smaller markets

Question

As a player in Oceania, I have difficulty finding an active game due to the (relatively) high number of players required to start up a game.

Currently, on BF2042, I am frequently unable to play any of the official experiences because there are insufficient players to spin up a server. This was also true during the open beta for Battlefield 6. I was frequently in a lobby with only half the number of players required to start a game - and this was during peak times (afternoon/evenings).

I understand there are similar issues for southern Africa and the Middle East.

Are you aware of the issue?

Do you have any plans to help players in smaller markets?

At the moment, I am holding off pre-ordering because I am concerned I will buy a game I cannot enjoy fully.

I play on Xbox X, and usually with crossplay off.

oskooi_007 · Answer

I hope you receive an official response. If I was experiencing low server population issues I would attempt to connect to regions with more players.

For Xbox this would require a home router that has VPN features. Have the router connect to a VPN server in a more populated region such as western United States (California), China, or Japan.

Ping time will depend on internet routing. California will probably have around 100ms ping time from Oceania. If China and Japan is routed through California first then the ping time will be really high around 200ms. If routed directly from Oceania to Asia then ping time should be low.

Europe has the largest player population out of all regions, but the ping time from Oceania will probably be higher than 200ms.

200ms is the highest ping time I consider playable. Here's a website that tests your ping time to servers around the world. It will give you an idea if looking into a VPN is worth it or not.

https://www.meter.net/tools/world-ping-test/

If you have any questions let me know. I'd definitely choose a home router that supports UDP VPN protocols such as WireGuard for low ping times. TCP VPN protocols such as OpenVPN would be laggy for gaming.

lancelot_du_lac · Answer

Great tool!For me, SEAsia or US would provide an acceptable ping i.e. &lt;200

oskooi_007 · Answer

Lancelot_du_Lac​ I think the ping test tool is pretty neat too!DICE said they're adding more search options to matchmaking. Hopefully DICE adds an option to choose which region we want to play in.I'd wait until after BF6 launches to see if finding full servers is an issue or not. Perhaps DICE will add a region select option to matchmaking.If finding full servers does become an issue then perhaps looking into a VPN in order to connect to different regions might be worth looking into.Asia has a population of 4.84 billion, but it seems PlayStation is more popular in Asia than Xbox.https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463647/ps5-vs-xbox-series-xs-vs-switch-2024-japan-sales-comparison-charts-through-december/Source: Niko Partners 2024 (Includes India, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam)https://nikopartners.com/ps5-pro-to-sell-over-10m-units-with-asia-mena-playing-a-larger-role/