Battlefield 3 is nearly upon us after what feels like a gaming age of build-up. With the open beta behind us, MyGaming has been catching up with local Internet service providers to see how they are prepping for the game’s launch on Friday, 28 October 2011.
MWEB’s online gaming manager Desmond Kurz said that “Over [the beta] period, we ran in excess of 20 public servers. At certain stages, especially at the beginning of the beta, MWEB public servers dominated the server listings in EA’s Battlelog. We had the luxury of running many instances of the Battlefield 3 server software, as we had invested in high-end hardware that was procured specifically for the hosting of Battlefield 3.”

We asked what MWEB had learnt from the beta testing phase, and how they will be taking those lessons into the full retail launch. “The server’s instances themselves are very processor intensive, and are highly dependent on a high CPU tickrate to ensure a smooth gaming experience, especially when dealing with the 64-player Caspian border map,” said Kurz.
“The servers performed adequately, so we are not expecting to make any changes. Obviously with the new server software being deployed for the retail version, we will have to test and ensure that the software still continues to work as expected,” he continued.
“As with the Beta, we have sufficient capacity to launch numerous server instances, so we will scale up as required. We’re all excited about the launch, so we will be watching closely and making sure there are enough servers to meet demand. We’re also open to suggestions for game / map configuration changes from the community. Any suggestions can be posted on our forums,” said Kurz.

“We’re grateful to the community for helping us test the servers and we look forward to bringing the gaming community a number of pleasant surprises around Battlefield 3 in the very near future. Gamers can visit us at our newly launched gaming portal where they can get the latest updates,” Kurz concluded.
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