Summary
Who doesn’t love a server browser? The ability to browse a list of dedicated servers and join whichever one took your fancy used to be the standard in gaming. However, in recent years, some developers have scrapped dedicated servers in favour of persistent servers that can scale upwards or downwards to accommodate constantly-changing player counts.
The server browser was removed inBattlefield 2042, much to the disappointment of the community. The server browser enables hosts to tweak rulesets, enabling a different gameplay experience to regular matchmaking. For example, someone could run a server dedicated to the hardcore ruleset, which limits HUD elements and reduces the player’s health.
Server Browser, Where Art Thou?
The server browser has been a staple of PC gaming for decades. Previous Battlefield games included a server browser, and Battlefield 1 is still thriving on PC because of dedicated community servers.
The controversy that has emerged regardingBattlefield 6(the unannounced next Battlefield instalment) and the server browser comes from data-mining. A data miner has suggested the only source code for Battlefield Labs regarding server browsers relates to Battlefield 2042’s portal system.
Battlefield Portal is a game mode within Battlefield 2042 that allows players to adjust game modes. However, the mode wasn’t as modular as hosted servers, so it never took off in popularity.
“I checked every playtest reference, link and related parts of the user interface from existing server browser to something or vice versa. For now, it’s like a portal feature (like in 2042), and not part of the main multiplayer section,” writes a dataminer, posted in a thread byKorlic99.
Even though Battlefield Labs is only a playtest, commenters are pessimistic about the possibility of a server browser in Battlefield 6: “Just add it to the main multiplayer, for f**k sake,” reads the thread’s top comment, fromLa-Leyenda.
There are numerous theories as to why Battlefield 6 may not have a server browser. The first is the aforementioned concept of server scalability; removing players from the curated matchmaking system could potentially lead to situations where a lone player is on a custom server with 30 bots. This is predictably more expensive than just forcing players together through matchmaking.
The other theory is that allowing players to host their own servers and “remove” themselves from the game’s ecosystem is detrimental to making money from live-service elements. Considering the existence of Battlefield Portal and the series' history with server browsers, even I would say this is probably too cynical a view.
“No server browser = no purchase. Sad because the game looks pretty good,” commentsboogiebentayga. “I would like to believe that they will change their minds on this. But I suspect that this is an empty hope,” concursSeveral_Ad_7393.
It’s hard to know how close Battlefield Labs' current build is to the final release of Battlefield 6,which likely won’t be until 2026. The general reception to Battlefield Labsis positive, even if there have been some controversies, such as the discourse aroundskill-based matchmaking.
