Destiny 2 Won’t Use Dedicated Servers On PC

Destiny 2 is coming to PC, which is great. But something PC gamers won’t be that thrilled by, particularly those with limited upload or gamers in developing countries, is the part where the game won’t be using dedicated servers.

In a lengthy interview with PC Gamer, Bungie’s head of PC David Shaw confirmed that server infrastructure for the game was “complicated” and that they “do not have dedicated servers for Destiny 2 on PC” – and presumably not on consoles either.

Not having dedicated servers isn’t exactly a death knell for a game, particularly in 2017. It was a major scandal when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 announced it was abandoning dedicated servers for player-hosted matchmaking lobbies, and a cabal of players responded by making Steam groups designed to boycott the game. The rage didn’t last long though, and player-hosted lobbies are far more common these days.

Still, it’s an issue if you have limited upload speeds. Only having to host up to 8 players, instead of the maximum of 12 that Destiny 1 could have, makes life a little easier. But that doesn’t include the extra upload required for voice communications and anything else that might want to hoover up your internet at the same time.

Shaw clarified later in the interview that Bungie knows they have to “be legit on day one” with the PC port:

Focusing on things like up to 4K resolution, uncapped framerate, mouse and keyboard support with full key remapping, adjustable FOV, tons of graphical options, support for different aspect rations—21:9—and text chat. You know, a ton of different things that are those feature sets that, when people bitch about a game just being a console port, those things are missing.

Ultrawide resolutions, full key remapping and an adjustable FOV are good things. I’d like to see someone quiz Bungie on accessibility issues as well, an area that an awful lot of games fail to get right, and hopefully you’ll be able to input specific values for things like mouse sensitivity (rather than having to adjust a slider).

But dedicated servers are one of those hot button topics that immediately enrages some gamers. It’s understandable to some extent, although I’m fortunate enough that my internet connection should be able to handle things without too much trouble.

You can read the rest of the interview with Shaw over at PC Gamer. It’s interesting, if only for what isn’t said and the questions that aren’t answered. But E3 is just around the corner, and there’s a beta to contend with as well.