Thanks to everyone that took part in the Battlefield™ V Closed Alpha! Not only was the Closed Alpha a chance for select players to go hands-on with an early version of the multiplayer map Arctic Fjord – it generated a lot of valuable data and feedback on how the game plays, performs, and looks.



Our server capacity and the total number of players needed to successfully complete our tests were limited – and so was the number of players in the Closed Alpha. We sent out a limited number of invites to Battlefield™ 4 or Battlefield™ 1 veterans that had opted in to receive marketing material from EA, and we handed out Alpha keys through social media to invite players that showed strong interest in joining.



In the Alpha, we tested the technical aspects of the game, its many backend systems, player scoring rate, and many other things. As you and your squad fought for precious Narvik territory in Grand Operations and the Conquest mode – sampling the new gunplay, the Fortifications system, and more along the way – we learned a lot.



Get an overview look at what the Battlefield V Closed Alpha was about.



Our learnings fall in to two major categories: technical and gameplay. Let’s start with the former, and more specifically, the mechanics of getting into the game.



Note that game content, gameplay mechanics, and other Battlefield V aspects covered in this article may change between the Closed Alpha and the launch of the game.

JOINING A GAME OF BATTLEFIELD V

As in Battlefield 1, there are two ways of joining a Battlefield V game: hitting a quickmatch button to be matchmade with other players or joining suitable games through the server browser. In the Closed Alpha, we had some issues with our matchmaking configuration, which caused some players to get error messages or be placed in less suitable server locations with increased latency when trying to join. Alpha players may have found it easier to join a game through the server browser, and while that is a viable option, matchmaking should always be a smooth, reliable way to get into the game.



Of course, the matchmaking system will see many changes and improvements between now and launch, and we even had time to improve it in the later days of the Closed Alpha, through some under-the-hood backend changes. Your feedback and participation made it possible for us to make further tweaks to this.



There are many factors to juggle when it comes to matchmaking: finding players with equal latency and skill level, and more – and these factors all need to co-exist. Getting the best possible matchmaking is a challenge of balance; we want to match you into the best possible server and experience, which may take a few moments of waiting, but at the same time not have you waiting too long to deploy. We appreciate your feedback on what you believe is a reasonable waiting time, and your comments on the Closed Alpha Forums have been very helpful.



There were issues with staying in your Squad between matches – this did not work as intended in the Closed Alpha but will be fixed. Squad Play is vital to Battlefield V and keeping you and your squad buddies together is a big priority for us.

The Closed Alpha also gave us insights into client and game server stability. Crashes should be as rare as possible, and though we almost hit our target for stability, we will keep working on improving that.



Apart from aspects like matchmaking and stability, we’re also hard at work with other things, such as improving the queue system, minimizing toxicity with a potential non-cross-faction chat room, and squashing strange bugs – like a picturesque Norwegian cabin mysteriously appearing around a downed player during a revive.