Battlefield 3 – DICE Hasn’t Forgotten About Esports, More on Battlerecorder and Spectator Mode

Some fans feel that DICE has been ignoring the competitive community as it’s been some time that Esport goers, and even casual gamers alike, have requested a spectator mode or Battlerecorder in order to monitor competitive matches. While it may seem this way, Daniel Matros, global community manager at DICE, stresses in a recent AMA on Reddit, “I’ve been pushing and advocating esports ever since I started out 2 years ago.” He adds, “I wouldn’t say ignored the competitive community. We went balls out on Dreamhack and said that we are aiming for esports.”

Many would argue that Battlefield 3 was partly advertised post-launch as having the capabilities to become a competitive title and that DICE failed to keep their word. Matros explains that “that is why it is very important to stick with what you say.” He’d also like fans to know, “things we say are never with worst intentions. Some things get left behind in a long dev process and get re-evaluated. That is why information can be pretty scarce at times.”

When it comes to updating the game to accomodate the Esports community, Matros mentions, “if we decided that some other things need more experimenting and fixing we will go ahead and do those. Adding in features later in a game is expected these days in the gaming industry. We’ve got esporters here in the studio though. I come from that background, Niklas Fegraeus, Gustav Halling, Tim Kjell and I’m sure more people are into it.”

Speaking about the much sought after spectator mode, Matros reveals that “spectator has been discussed internally a lot as well.” However, he continues, “we aren’t confident with rolling out things that will intentionally break the game. Let’s face it, we had a long dev process for the [Frostbite 2] engine and the game and a lot of things were in the brighter light than spectator, such as making a great game for the majority of the players. I agree with the fact that spectator would be great to have though!”

Last month, we learned that DICE does, indeed, have a functional Battlerecorder within the studio. However, it is primarily being used as a marketing video editor for the time being. This was recently cemented even further when marketing video editor at EA, Randy Evans, recently tweeted, “I’m not gonna lie, Battlerecorder is so much f*cking fun to use.” Allegedly, the only issue holding it back that it is currently, “useless junk,” in the words of one DICE employee. Meaning, it simply isn’t ready or functional enough to be released to the public.

It’s clear that DICE has the competitive community in mind. The question is, when will these goals materialize in Battlefield 3. As Matros recently stated, “what we’ve seen over the past year is that Esports is ganing a lot of ground, especially in Europe after a few years and it’s still rising.” He also reveals that there are still plans in store for the competitive community, mentioning that “the BF3 road hasn’t ended yet you know. We still have some content ready for release in forms of DLC´s and will also update the game going forward.”

Do you still hope for Battlefield 3’s entrance into the Esports universe, or do you look to other games for your competitive fix?

If you’ve missed it, learn more about the patching process behind Battlefield 3 as community manager Daniel Matros provides more insight.

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