As confirmed on Twitter:

This is a huge bummer. And not just for PC users either.

I definitely did not expect one, but bummer to get it in stone. Star Wars is as mass market as the mass market gets and the masses sure don't get "server browsers" unfortunately.

What lunatic would expect anything else?

@hippie_genocide: The recent Battlefield tittles have had one, so it wouldn't be that crazy.That said, with all the concessions they are making to streamline this game, I can't say Im surprised.

@geraltitude: Yeah I know they want to streamline it as much as possible but it's not like it's an either/or proposition either. They could do both like they have done before.

@hippie_genocide: Judging by their previous efforts I think it's extremely fair to expect a server browser.

Seems like a weird move for DICE. Weren't they beating their chest about how they had dedicated servers + browser, while Call of Duty didn't, just a few years ago?

@hassun: Definitely true, just feeling that the "double down" of systems in this genre is so rare these days. But yeah, pretty sure this decision was made from a marketing mentality of "people who aren't nerds will run away from server lists" unfortunately. Did I hallucinate a time when most games let you either pick "find a game" or just pick from a list?

Well that puts a bullet in the PC scene for the game.

No tears from me. Quick Match all the way.

Whoops. The money I was gonna spend on this game just happened to get blown away. Meh, money to save up for MGS5.

I don't mind, why do people prefer server browsers anyway?

@rollingzeppelin: Matchmaking can be fickle, and server browsers allow for seeking out specific types of experience (more RP-based or unofficial match types) or partying up with large groups outside of system-level parties. Plus matchmaking is entirely dependent on what the algorithm decides is 'optimal'. That's not always the ideal.

(Taken from the thread I made on this same topic)

I am super bummed out about this. I live in Australia and as a result we have smaller online communities but we do well enough because we can stick together and become regulars on our servers etc. In games with matchmaking however you end up with 1 or 2 modes that people play and a 15 min+ wait on anything else which only gets worse over time.

I had held out hope because I knew that Uprise (the company that made Battlelog for the other games [A service I really liked because of the server filtering options]) was making "something" for Battlefront. Well it turns out they were making a companion app which functions as a stat tracker/freemium browser card game (see here 4th paragraph).

If I might be blunt: what the fuck. Am I the last of a dying breed of people that expect a base level of online options as we've had since the 90s onwards? Matchmaking works okay if you have a large enough population but if you don't have those Call of Duty numbers (and sometimes even with those Call of Duty numbers) you end up with 70% of the modes unplayable. With server browser based games unless the mode is actively disliked you'll be able to find games. I can right now, go and join a TDM server in BF3 because I saw a server and hopped right in. Trying to play CTF in Titanfall in my region is impossible. It doesn't surface numbers but I suspect there are literally zero people in that mode because I'd leave the search for well over a quarter of an hour before giving up. I don't think this means no one wants to play CTF, just that no one wants to wait for an hour to get a game.

That's not to mention the fact that no matchmaking means no server options. Don't like hero classes, want to play on a server locked to first person only? Want instant/slower respawns? Too bad, DICE knows best.

However there's nothing to be done it seems. Everyone knows that famous Modern Warfare 2 steam group and how that panned out. At the end of the day it seems a lot of people just don't care, but I feel they should. Maybe it's just me. What do you guys think? I'd love to hear about matchmaking experiences from people like me who aren't in the US and everyone's opinion on server browsers in online games.

Haven't played a Battlefield game since 3, but Ioved battlelog in that, it was weird at first but ended up working really well. Why wouldn't they do that again?

I'm guessing the devs just want more control over the online of the game?

Cynic me thinks "Well this way when a year goes by and they're ready to announce a battlefront 2 for yearly release, they'll just unplug the old servers and make everyone move on."

Just remember that smaller steam games often have server browsers. Insurgency is my personal favorite and has full steamworks multiplayer server browsing and whatnot. We haven't been able to expect server browsers since Modern Warfare 2 abandoned them at least.

Personally, there's nothing a server browser gives me that isn't covered by your general matchmaking system. In fact, I find myself more often spending too much time trying to find a server, and if they allow people to rent them I fear wading through servers with atbitrary gameplay rules and limited map variety.

But I can certainly see where some arguments in this thread are coming from in regards to keeping it.

My Cynical side has expected this game to be streamlined garbage from the moment it was announced so.... can't say this is surprising.

To be fair, if it means I don't have to open a web browser to launch the sodding game I'm sold.

@hayt: That's really shitty. Thanks for sharing that.

@rollingzeppelin: Because they are much better for dedicated communities. If you just want to get in a game and press W and click the left mouse button a bunch, matchmaking is fine. (Or if you have very small team games you ideally only play with a very small group of dedicated friends like competitive CSGO or DotA.)

Even the smaller team sizes of Star Wars: Battlefront far exceed this in size and type of game. The best thing you can do in a games like Battlefield is find a great server with an awesome community. Not having a server browser effectively torpedoes this possibility.

My experience with server browsers is that fickle hosts will kick me and what I get to play will be constrained when people's awful tastes make the most populated servers ones that limit the game. Metro 24/7, anyone? Finally, server browsers fragment the playerbase in ways that can make it difficult to find a decent match off-hours. So yeah, in conclusion, I'm not only fine with this, but fuck server lists.

@hayt: I pretty much concur with what you said. As someone in AU, there are games I wished had communities here but don't have the player base for it here.

For FPS games, especially on PC, dedicated servers with a server browser should be THE standard, it is ridiculous that it isn't.

Believe it or not, I was on the side of the fence of boycotting the COD series after that MW2 fiasco and I actually did stick with it (and probably for the better seeing how the series has turned out over the years)

It's not going to change anything before release but there's a petition that might show someone in the company that people care

https://www.change.org/p/electronic-arts-dice-ea-please-add-a-server-browser-for-battlefront

Fucking stupid, what reasons could there to NOT have a server browser?

@bigboss1911: I can only assume they think they know best but refuse to justify any of their choices

@veektarius:

A) Matchmaking and server browsers can coexist just fine (as they do in many games).
B) The joy of being able to choose your server is that you don't actually have to deal with the problems you listed because you can just go somewhere else.

In short, all your problems with server browsers aren't actually problems if a combined system is present.

Matchmaking only on instanced/peer-to-peer servers is the online gaming equivalent of saying, "since you can't please everyone, please no one with standardized one-size-fits-all automation". Everybody loses, but equally.

Edit: Though I will concede that there are certain styles of game where matchmaking is a better fit in terms of being a more seamless part of the experience, like in Dark Souls or Journey.

@whiteforestparkrangr:

Including pretty much everything that DICE has made in the last 5 years. This is the bit that makes me crazy.