July 9th 2009 9:17 pm PT

FiPo

Great. It was in the Trail Version too.

Wonderful… well whenever I do get in a game it’s so marvelous that I just forget about all the trouble.

Thanks for the updates Major.

I got into a couple of rounds last night & the game is awesome.

Once the server issues are cleared up, I’ll be on this one for a long time.

This isn’t any more of an update than what’s scrolling at the bottom of the 1943 screen.

I can’t even get into games that have room in them. I’ve had a few friends playing saying there’s 3, 4, 5 open spots and yet when i join them it just says ‘game appears to be unavailable’.

Ridiculous. EA sucks.

So, what was their server capacity, like 100 active users? How could they not have known this game would be popular. It’s EA!!!

Glad to see their working on it. Looks like I’m going to have to cash in some points when I get home.

It is disappointing when company doesn’t trust their product enough at launch to have servers prepared. Makes me wonder how much trust EA is placing on Bad Company 2 launch. This makes it two Battlefield series games with failed servers. Maybe it would be good idea for EA to finally let Microsoft handle the servers.

It wouldn’t be that terrible had the game any single player elements, but in this case even that isn’t available. It’s good that servers are being added, and DICE is most likely taking much more heat than they deserve compared to EA.

Thanks it is a great game.

Love that spin!

This really is such a non-response. They’re basically saying “We’re so awesome that all you peons crashed our servers.” I didn’t have any problems at all getting into a game, because I couldn’t even connect to EA to launch the game. Later when playing Rockband(EA game as well) I couldn’t purchase tracks because the music store wouldn’t load. But, its EA so I expected as much.

Oh, and to the “Fi”rst “Po”st guy: “FU” “YO”. Decipher that one.

I bought it for the PS3 and it has been working fine, i had been playing the 360 demo on wednesday, all day trying to get online but i couldn’t, so i bought the PS3 version.

So yeah, this screw up could of resulted in a good few sales to the other system.

EA has a long history of “underestimating” the server requirements for their games.

This mess is what happens when developers are allowed to operate their own Xbox Live servers.

I can’t seem to even log in when playing battlefield, once all this wrinting from EA came up then it dissapeared and now suddenly every login fails

Do you have to sign up with EA, i’m confused. I never had that ea message terms and conditions come up again, even after redownloading it.

I loved playing the tutorial, then trying to get into a game, then playing the tutorial, then trying to get in a game, then playing the tutorial, then trying to get into a game…

Major, Microsoft needs to renegotiate with EA so that they use Xbox Live servers instead of their own.

Once you’re in a server it’s smooth sailing with little to no lag, but getting into one in the first place is the problem.

They took a gamble in remaking a little bit of BF1942, but it is an awesome little game to play.

Well, their best efforts don’t seem to be good enough as I still can’t get into a game, although I could for about 30 minutes around 3:30PM PST. I am pretty patient as I have been a gamer since the late 70′s, but this is pretty bad. I would love to get a statement minus the spin–some kind of contrition (not expecting it) besides the usual tripe from EA.

The biggest question I have, is are they (EA) gonna give us anything for this massive screw up? I don’t expect money back, but some kind of unlock or extra map–something for the early adopters for all the frustration! They have a huge black eye on this one and should do something if they really care about their customers–not that we have much choice but to take it in the shorts given EA’s size.

Thanks for the update……..now how about an update on what is going on with the Marketplace? According to Xbox.com/support………. “Users may experience difficulties when attempting to use Marketplace and/or making purchases. We are aware of the problem and working to resolve the technical issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.” I am still being affected with this and customer support refuses to help me until this message goes away.

Its been 3 days now with this problem and no word from you or anyone at Xbox on what the deal is. Very frustrating waiting on this when its preventing customer support from helping me. Thanks in advance (if you acknowledge it).

mmksquared, you have every choice in the world, stop buying EA games. I haven’t bought one since 06 until this one and i went into it knowing it was probably going to take a week for EA to get their #@(* together and make the game work. Nothing’s improved with them in the 3 years i’ve personally boycotted their products.

Why is the Marketplace always so stinkin slow online all the time?

Honestly, the Battlefield theme song is so awesome that I don’t mind waiting extra long to get into a game. It’s gets me so fired up that I instantly start shooting people in the face as soon as I spawn into a game. Thanks DICE. Sweden rules!

I find it hard to believe that EA underestimated the demand for this game. First of all its a Battlefield game, second its summer and this is the only big shooter out for at least another few months. Just another half-assed effort from EA.

Did you know that if you bought the full game, you can play with the trial gamers.

@Grumpybum – Microsoft doesn’t provide any servers. It’s a peer to peer service. A dev can provide their own servers if they want.

I’m still having a connection issue.

I only downloaded the demo (for now), but I have yet to be able to play a game.

This is NOT good for sales. Especially for someone like me who owns both, a 360 and a PS3. If things aren’t fixed soon I may have to buy this game for my PS3 instead (even though I would really rather have it for my 360).

Patience my dear friends…eventually got on last night after a few tries + an hour break and then giving it a couple go’s before I got in a game. If you find yourself in such a position, I highly recommend calming your frustrations with an episode of Band of Brothers…VERY fitting show to watch to set the tone/mood as you give it another go to find a match!! Then again tonight I got in with only a couple tries. And don’t forget…this game was ONLY $15!!!!!!!!!

I still fail to understand how EA could underestimate the server demand/popularity of this title.

That point aside, like Blue Thunder28 said above… once you do get into a game you forget the grief you’ve had getting there cos the game is just so damned good!

I’m a huge BF1942 fan on the PC and this is just like a tiny slice of that gaming excellence!

Good work on the game DICE !!!!

finally got one game, and then half way through, got booted out, nice well done EA, rest of the night, couldn’t get back in.

I want a refund.

Problems like this are the reason why EA shouldnt be allowed to run their own servers.

Whats the point of paying for a gold subscription and then MS allow EA to take over. If i wanted company run multiplayer servers i play on a ps3 where i can play for free.

EA shouldn’t have their own servers.

Failed to connect to EA online…………..

“We are running maintenance to help improve matchmaking, joining friends, & other technical issues. Servers will be back soon.”

So basically EA launch games with the tiniest amount of servers possible, run into massive problems, and gradually increase the number of servers dedicated until it’s just enough for the game. All the name of saving money I guess. It’s two days after the game was released and I still can’t get into any matches. In an online game. Appalling. Yeah so how would we go about getting our money back?

It is a shame there are issues, but I have logged 9 hours online already and a majority of those with friends. It just took some work to get in matches together. You basically just have to keep trying until it works and then NEVER leave that game until you are done.

Once you are in the game and playing, you completely forget about the issues, as it is absolutely fun as hell. Once this game is running smoothly you all will be in for a fine ass treat if you can’t get in or are having problems now. It’s a damn fun time.

Jeez you guys are such whiners.

Is this the first time you’ve experienced a game/internet/computer company, that didn’t expect their level of success?

Do you have any idea how hard estimates like that are?

im still waiting for this game to work, i’ve had it since launch and it hasnt worked properly at all.

1200 points for a main menu seems a bit much, dya think?

Its a good idea to have a demo, personally, if they can’t get this sort of thing buttoned down BEFORE release, then IMO, its not worthy of your money.

Lets look at the facts, the game is ONLINE ONLY, which means apart from the tutorial, you can’t play it, unless you go ONLINE.

I tried for over half and hour last night to get just ONE online game, and I couldn’t, this is unforgivable, and as such, its deleted, and I now won’t buy it.

Whats the point of buying a game you can’t even play?

@SeventhSun DK

Indeed – how dare people pay 1200 MSP of their hard earned cash and expect the game to work as advertised.

Shame on them for complaining – in fact EA I demand you get the barbed wire and lube out!

takes about 3 or 4 tries to get into a game for me, but when I do its awesome.

They will continue to improve the server situation. This game is well worth the wait. It will be my main game for a while.

Was able to get on for a couple game last night lag free until my xbox froze yet again but we know that’s a whole different issue.

This is very typical with EA and it happened with all the C&C games the last 2 years. The only problem with those is there wasn’t enough demand to force EA to do anything about it and online for those games died off very quickly. If EA is going to host their own games they should be required to have a specific level of capacity so their not calling CDW and building new server farms on the fly.

This was a majorly botched launch. I didn’t expect to see one (of such a highly anticipated game) worse than the Gears 2 lobby fiasco in a long time.
I applaud DICE for taking chances and going against the grain on games like Mirror’s Edge, 1943, and Battlefield Heroes, but they all fall short of the mark (well, Heroes isn’t out yet, but Bad Company fell short of its contemporaries).
Maybe it is their partnership with EA, but regardless this was a HUGE disappointment and I’m going to have to pass on their games until something truly astounding hits…

For anyone interested on the inside scoop on what really happened…

EA knew all along this would be big. But apparently EA couldn’t get the credit needed to build out the network and server infrastructure for the game launch, so they decide to launch anyway with only a few servers with the expectation and hopes that a lot of people would still purchase the game so they could collect the money and then use that to build out the network. It appears they also hit the jackpot, since launch day purchases were so high and fast that they were able to enjoy collecting substantial interest$ on the several million $s they were able to bank.

“I just heard from EA, and they wanted me to let you know that “Battlefield 1943 has been so well received and in such high demand we exceeded our server capacity.”

Thats what I would say too

The only reason that the PS3 version did not have major connectivity issues is because bearly anyone uses a PS3. Come on PS3 total sales equals about 1/3 or less of 360 total sales or even Wii total sales. EA dropped the ball by under estimating 360 members usage. Come on XBL is in the guiness book of world records for a reason.

No way can EA try to make out that they sold more then expected and that is why we are having problems, that is PATHETIC, it is an online game, the amount of people wanting the demo would have been huge, they know how many people download demos, each demo user has a approx 99% chance of wanting to take this game online, so if everybody tried the demo, then nobody bought it, they would have had enough servers for people to use? where did this stupid train of thought come from?!? LMFAO

And what is with the stupid baldy danish bloke complaining that people are winging?

If he bought a retail game from a shop, and it did not work, would he just put it on his shelf and hope that it was fixed somehow in the future, pmsl, what a spazmatron!

HE WOULD HAVE TOOK IT STRAIGHT BACK!

I’m really enjoying this game….when I can get into one. I just wish the maps would allow for more players, that way I could do some more killing. The maps are great!

Downloaded the trial version wednesday morning, and haven’t played a single match. Not from lack of trying though. Deleted.

Some people on here sure give up too easily… Just try 3-5 times and you’ll get in guaranteed.

I’m gonna try the demo out and report my findings back here.

great game, really odd how EA could be caught out by demand

exprohoudn: it isn’t odd because EA wasn’t caught out by demand. Read my previous post. EA couldn’t get the credit to build out the network and server infrastructure. Now that they have the money (thanks to everyone who bought it on day 1), they can do the build out.

So happy that I paid 15 clams to see a searching for game screen. Why would I want to play a game… that is just silly.
I call this a fail on both Microsoft and EA.
The one time I have been able to get in and play I loved it. Great game, runs smooth and brings back all the good times i had with 1942.
But the server issues is a fail here on both companies parts no matter how you look at it.

I hate to break it to you, but this will change nothing moving forward. We’re in a day and age where publishers don’t care if they ship a broken game (Fallout DLC) or a game with non-working components (Castle Crashers) or a game that barely works (Battlefield 1943).

They don’t care because for the most part, you’d have a hell of a time returning a physical game disk, and in the case of XBLA, there are no refunds.

And since there’s a ton of people who will go and buy instantly, there’s no need for accountability because even if you got frustrated, even if they don’t fix the game, it doesn’t matter, they have your money and its over.

And that’s why no one learns from these fiascos.

Ahhhhh!… Darn everyone else for getting it at the same time. How many new servers do they have to buy?

Why am I not surprised…I was going to buy this after work today but I will wait to see when/if they get the “server” situation taken care of.

it’s still taking sometimes 10 attempts to connect then i get 2 matches in and the 3rd i always have my xbox freeze completly up. im getting rather frustrated with this cuz now my dashboard is freezing also. wtf why dont they test these games better hell ive already found a black hole ina bunker on guadalcanel. dont get me wrong the game is awsome but grr on the server issues

The Detective – If companies didn’t care then they wouldn’t do anything to fix it. Your argument is completely flawed because all of the examples you’ve listed were games that were eventually fixed (Castle Crashers taking the longest for obvious reasons). Your theory suggests that companies are an entity of one who care little about those who give them money, and that consumers willingly buy into a product knowing they are being screwed. If nothing was done to fix the problem then they probably wouldn’t make a lot of money…

I’m sure it’s just as frustrating for a company to invest more money and time into a product that they wanted to be done with (minus small bug fixes). It’s just more of an investment to hold the game from consumers, especially if there is a impending release date that has to be met. What simply happened here is EA and Dice didn’t have the server infrastructure ready to handle the amount of people.

Honestly I think companies would fair better from these storms from fans and others if they were completely honest with what happened, instead of letting people speculate.

Hoping all is well with this game soon. Looking forward to trying it out!

Still takes 10mins or more to connect to a server – and when I do connect, I can only play for about 5 – 10mins before the entire xbox360 locks up.

Shame on Microsoft for allowing such low-quality software onto your network! SHAME!

Can get into games on my own after a few attempts now, but not with friends, forget it! They need to sort that out asap. The game has also frozen solid on me a few times. Some major bugs to be ironed out. Great game, but severely hampered.

“EA couldn’t get the credit to build out the network and server infrastructure.”

You’re seriously trying to argue that EA, with an annual revenue of over 4 billion dollars, needed to get credit to add servers?

Microsoft, take the game off marketplace, how can you continue to sell something that does not work?

I’m so frustrated with how the launch of this title was handled. I bought the game on day one and I have not been able to connect to play. Everytime I try, I get a Connection Error – Failed to connect to EA Online.

I am also disappointed as to how much preparation EA had for this game. Its like they didnt have faith the title would sell? I think they underestimate the Xbox360 Market. A game of this category is going to be huge, specially when there are no titles that compete with it directly available, for the time of its release. What they should have done, was thinking whatever amount of players they thought would join, and multiply it by a 3 factor and add the servers in advanced.

I live in Texas, and I have seen a lot of people saying it works for them. Maybe they have the servers spread out per timezone and the Central timezone has not been upgraded yet… I frankly do not know. I just think its ridiculous that at this time and age this stuff happens.

Last but not least, I am biased towards EA Servers are always problematic. Any game they launch that has to connect to their respective EA Server has had issues. Since Need for Speed Underground, to Criterion’s Burnout this has always been an issue. EA should do like Apple, and invest $1 Billion in getting a decent serverfarm running so this kind of issues dont happen. Because right now they have my money, but I cannot play… Next game like this EA launches I am going to pass and wait till they get their act straight.

Come on guys already 3 millions Kills make the 360 finish first !!!

if we keep that rythm the coral sea map will be unlocked tuesday at midnight GMT+1

A GENOCIDE FOR A MAP <– THAT’S WEIRD (T_T)

The Ticker is claiming that the fix to Quick Match and Join with Friends is complete, and also says that even more servers are being added… And yet I just wasted 15 minutes of my day trying to play a game is now completely unplayable.
I can’t believe this mess is not only still going on, 3 days later, but has now somehow managed to get even more pathetic.

This is not only unacceptable for BOTH EA and Microsoft, but it is quickly becoming one of the more infamous black eyes in recent memory for console DLC.

P.S. When in the last 3 days I’ve been able to get a game, I am absolutely loving it. Fantastic work, kudos to Dice.

Would people remember that the problem is not with Live or Microsoft but actually with EA. Live is fully functional it is EA’s servers that are having the problems since they failed in system development. So stop blaming Microsoft and Live.

Man I have a crap ton of Microsoft points and I want to pull the trigger on a few good arcade games, and I really want to get this one, but not until everything is ironed out connection wise. And since EA is involved, I am SERIOUSLY doubting it will ever be 100% for this game. When Bad Company came out, ‘Can not connect to EA Online’ was a VERY COMMON THEME.

I hate EA with a passion. From their lack of enough servers, to lag in their servers once you get a match, to their lack of product support after launch (Tiger Woods ’06/’07 anyone????).

pathetic EA, absolutely common for you as well.

Am I the only one that finds it funny that, even though the xbox 360 version of the game has all these problems, the coral sea counter shows that the xbox community is beating the ps3 community by about 5 million kills!

@Sticky Owens

That’s real mature.
You’re whining though.

Of course 360 is winning…I highly doubt they took into effect the sheer number of XBL users vs. PSN users (or they did, but didn’t subtract “PSN” accounts that are for PSP and PS2 (which is how they get their “we have the most” claims for the online service), and to be “fair” probably had the same number of servers for 360 and PS3. 360, with more users, crashed the servers, and games are constantly full. PS3, with less users, has less games, is using less servers, so the “experience” is better on that platform, but they are waaaayyyyyy behind in matches/ kills. Pick your poison…winning team with laggy games/ crap servers, losing team with better matchmaking and games. I’m still waiting it out…there hasn’t been a cross platform game yet that 360 didn’t trounce PS3, so the contest was over before it started.

I was continuing to get unable to connect to EA Servers, on Sunday. So, I went to an email I’d received on my PC, welcoming me to EA. I signed in, and noticed that I had a bunch of PC profiles from games I’ve played with EA. I clicked add a profile, and linked my Xbox gamertag, which required waiting for another email. Then I powered up my xbox, forgetting to sign in, and started the game, where it prompted me to sign-in to XBOX live, then it gave me another terms and conditions screen, as it had 4-5 days ago, and now I can magically connect to EA servers. It appears that EA has brought PC complications to XBox live, thank you very much.

I’d also like to say that I doubt the DICE underestimated purchases that much. They knew that there would be a lot of trial accounts hitting the servers, but those are only 1/2 hour right? Well, there were probably millions of downloads, and everyone is hitting the servers with their trial time, at the same time. So, EA underestimated the flood of trials, rather than purchases. They can add servers, but as the trials drop off, it also improves the situation too.

Seems to be working for me now 90% of the time. I have friends who can’t join me even though there’s space, and vice versa, and the best squad achievment isn’t unlocking for everyone even though the end of game screen has shown them to be in the best squad for every map. Funnyiest moment so far: Steaming into a falg point on wake island in a jeep, running over 2 enemies by the flag and jumping out and popping a 3rd enemy that i missed on the way in, all the time while draining the flag point. Got 496 points for that game.

I caved and ended up buying it. Really enjoying it although still getting the occasional bit of lag/glitchy weirdness.
And is it just me or are some weapons in this game massively underpowered?. The tanks and planes don’t seem to have any or at least VERY limited splash damage. Seems like only a direct hit with a tank shell will kill an enemy soldier. Same goes with the planes bombs. I shot a shell directly at a guys feet twice and it did noting. Likewise someone dropped a bomb right next to me last night (I saw it land) and I was only slightly dazed!, wtf!?. I think the first update they do they need to ramp up the splash damage on these weapons.