Battlefield 1943 having difficulties

By Tom Bramwell Published 9 July, 2009

DICE wheeling in more servers to cope.

DICE has been working hard through the night to solve problems affecting Battlefield 1943, which launched on Xbox Live yesterday and should be out for PS3 today.

Apparently when it all went live yesterday, the news was not so good. Writing on the EA forums (thanks Kotaku), producer Gordon Van Dyke blamed servers unexpectedly hitting capacity due to high demand.

Later on, however, EA and DICE were able to introduce more servers, and posts to the forum and Twitter late last night suggest those included more in Europe. Judging by threads on our own forum, you're having more luck getting on now. Or maybe you're not? Let us know in the comments.

Look out for our review of Battlefield 1943 soon. We had hoped to bring it to you yesterday, but were unable to get enough time online with it pre-release. Absolute shambles around here lately. I'm planning to sack myself.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (57) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DefdumBlindkid #1 3 years ago

    couldnt get a game at all last night :-(

  • Monkey_Puncher #2 3 years ago

    I got on okay last night, though beforehand I was getting a lot of 'no servers can be found' messages.

    Boggles the mind when a developer like DICE can honestly not expect their new version of their incredibly popular Battlefield franchise, to not be very popular.

  • asphaltcowboy #3 3 years ago

    Started off a bit ropey, but everything started to fall into place around 12am-ish maybe (for me anyway)? Played for a good few hours and it was lovely!

  • SBfistfun #4 3 years ago

    I could get on but a mate of mine couldn't. Quite good fun!

    Poor show yet again, can't remember the last time a battlefield release wasnt a shambles.

    I'm expecting the first couple of days of Bad company 2 to be horrific as well.

  • Scurrminator #5 3 years ago

    well, when you offer EVERYONE 20 mins for free there are going to be a lot of people trying it, fucking duh

  • Bosthian #6 3 years ago

    Did not work the whole night :///
    And I bougt brand new 3 months live membership.. for what??!?

  • Colin8703 #7 3 years ago

    I got about half a game last night and it is shambolic.

    @ Scurrminator

    I would be fine with this if I downloaded the trial but I bought the full game.

  • Eraysor #8 3 years ago

    I finally managed to try it this morning, and it's good but not as good as Bad Company. I imagine you could get BC for not much more than 1943 now too, and that has far better value.

  • kebab1701 #9 3 years ago

    I spent an hour trying to get a game then managed finally after JIPing into one ... i thought it was brilliant when actually playing it was just getting into a game that was the problem.

  • Mortey #10 3 years ago

    I played the tutorial last night as I couldn't get on. Quite glad I did, the planes are a bitch to control at the start!

    Also it seems the tutorial doesn't effect the time limit, as I must have played it more than 30 mins.

  • Jimbob89 #11 3 years ago

    I'm trying to join a game right now, and it keeps telling me the game is unavailable. I thought it'd be ok at this time in the morning!

  • stepneg #12 3 years ago

    I didn't get a single game last night and gave up about 10, bit of a poor show given you can't even start up a map on your own to have a mess about on.

  • LeeroyJenkins #13 3 years ago

    Can you invert the plane controls? It makes NO sense to me that "up is up" on the joystick. I want plane controls dammit. All it would take is simple menu option and some controller code to make it possible.

  • optimusprym8 #14 3 years ago

    Was playing fine yesterday morning after finding the full game download in "Video Marketplace > Game Videos > All > BF1943 > Most Popular" :-/ for about an hour with 3 friends. Was an absolute riot and great fun. Then America woke up and it all went to shit. Managed to get another game this morning without a problem but expect more issues until after the weekend and initial rush has resided.

  • stodgypudding #15 3 years ago

    I was just about to go and play L4D with 8 disgruntled purchasers when we were able to get on one by one. I'm seriously hoping we will be able to have a private room tonight without needing 16 players :(

  • systems #16 3 years ago

    I honestly thought it would be OK and they wouldn't make the mistake they've made every other time. Tried for a couple of hours and couldn't get in (couldn't even quit the game either - had to drop to dashboard).

    I'll fall for it again with BC2. At least with that you can play single player until they double the servers like they always have to.

  • metalangel #17 3 years ago

    @Leeroy: yes, you can. It's right there in the options. I an incredibly disappointed by this game. While it looks and plays well, I can't get over the huge amount that's been cut out from BF1942 and the fact you *have to* play on EA servers. You cannot host your own game, hence these capacity problems. Not buying this.

  • jonsaan #18 3 years ago

    I got on once last night and the lag was so bad it was comical. This morning it was no better and I couldn't get a game at all. They obviously haven't been working that hard eh?

    It's pathetic really. You should be offered a refund of your points.

  • thegamesthething #19 3 years ago

    It is still pretty ropey this morning - leaderboards are now up but in 30 minutes of game hunting I got 5 minutes of (admittedly lag-free) play. A bad sign, given demand at this time must be really low compared to the peak.

    A pity, beacuse when it works, it is great.

  • rhubarbandcustard #20 3 years ago

    Couldn't join a game last night, and still can't this morning.

    1200 Microsoft Points waiting to be spent DICE.

    I'm sure a lot of gamers, like me, aren't buying it until we've actually tried the damn thing. Having said that, once the server issue has been sorted, this will probably become my most played game of the year.

    Also, despite the bad reviews ...Battlefield Heroes - a huge amount of fun.

  • muscleblade #21 3 years ago

    I also bought it but joining a party with 4 of my friends that couldnt get a game going i didnt bother trying. A refund should be in place imo. I bought a product that doesnt work at all. I want a refund.

  • Jimbob89 #22 3 years ago

    just managed to get a few games, and got disconnected from all of them half way through, now i can't even find a game again. Fail!

  • homerramone #23 3 years ago

    In other news, it will get dark tonight.

  • Fightclubber #24 3 years ago

    This is taking the piss its still not working for me at all. I somehow got on last night when i went to the leaderboard looks at the top guys profile and had the choice to join his game, after that i got to play it for about 90 mins and it was ace.
    But after that ive had shat all luck, just searches for games and finds piss all.
    Really piss poor show

  • BadBoyBonner #25 3 years ago


    Tried about 90-100 times to get on last night got on twice both times for less than 2 minutes. Played the tutorial (again) to give me a little bit of experience. Then got so fed up went and played WAW - only for it to be constantly crashing and booting people out (no doubt a knock on effect of the EA shenanigans). Gave it all up and went and played DOD:Source on the PC to vent the frustrations.

    Will be trying again tonight sometime after 10pm - fingers crossed - at least it can't get any worse. Well, when I say it can't, aren't they launching the PS3 version today?
    Edited by 1 at 09/07/09 @ 11:04

  • BadBoyBonner #26 3 years ago

    but when your chewing on lifes gristle don't grumble give a whistle and this'll make things turn out for the best....annnnnnnd"....

    Got put on a game, that actually works... -whistle-whistle-whi-whi-whi-whistle.

  • Optyk #27 3 years ago

    I still cant join games

  • Apostle #28 3 years ago

    I just hope the PS3 servers are separate from the xbox ones, other wise tonight will be a no go as well.

    I played some games yesterday afternoon that were lag free, and can honestly say when it's working this game is awesome. Reminds me of the problems Warhawk had at launch.

  • Miths #29 3 years ago

    If the same thing is going to happen with the PS3 version, I guess it's not such a major catastrophe after all that I won't get a chance to play the game until Saturday or Sunday :).

  • rashes #30 3 years ago

    Attempted it there now. Took 2 attempts to get into a game and seems to be running well. Some guys are so good in those planes already! It's great fun.
    It's morning in the US and daytime in Europe so we'll see how well it holds out this evening. I really want to get into a game with my friends. That might be a stretch today.

  • br00talz #31 3 years ago

    I've been playing loads, when you get in a game its awesome.

  • tinners #32 3 years ago

    Why oh why cant you set a private game and choose how many slots you want for your mates??

    fucking thing forces 16 players to start or nothing at all, well done EA another fine mess your company has put us in.

    Once you are in a game tho it's utterly amazing i dont think any XBLA arcade game will look as good as this.

  • symmetry #33 3 years ago

    Last night was impossible to get a game. This morning however, all was fine with the world and I had a blast getting shot out of the sky by someone who was far to good on the AA. It's OK though because I spawned as a scout and shot him through the head :)

  • CHAZBIGPOTATO #34 3 years ago

    @ Defdumblindkid

    Do you have pinball FX and are you looking forward to the release of Pinball hall of fame - The Williams Collection?

  • AphoticCosmos #35 3 years ago

    I've been playing for 4 hours straight with only one instance of lag. It was just like BF2, but perhaps even more fun!

  • jonsaan #36 3 years ago

    Lets see how it is tonight when the US are up and about too.

  • tinners #37 3 years ago

    i just wanna make a squad, maybe in a months time or so :(

  • Agent_Orange #38 3 years ago

    Wont be able to play this 'til i get home on Friday night, thought I was missing out but looks like its a good thing I'm not at my XBOX...

  • CHAZBIGPOTATO #39 3 years ago

    Had a few games on this just now and its superb..

  • quantumsheep #40 3 years ago

    When you're on and you're playing, it's just amazingly good and addictive :)

    Should be even better with friends... when we can all get on!

  • kebab1701 #41 3 years ago

    Right im heading home from work ... gonna TRY to get into a game tonight ... good luck folks!

  • holloguts #42 3 years ago

    Another great online battlefield game ruinrd by the cancer of online gaming EA and their pathetic servers.

  • rashes #43 3 years ago

    Anyone able to join games with their party or accept a game invite?

  • inni786 #44 3 years ago

    any idea as to when the ps3 version will be available to buy, sometime this evening?

  • DefdumBlindkid #45 3 years ago

    Tried for the last hour to get my very first game as I didn't manage it last night- unfortunately 'no Dice'! :o)

  • MuppetThumper #46 3 years ago

    muppets - no joy tonight either

  • jambo74 #47 3 years ago

    Well, no buy until I find out the the issues are sorted. If that is not soon then the points go elsewhere.

  • ProEvoNut #48 3 years ago

    tried for 40 mins tonight and still cant get no game

    its a fucking joke launching a online multiplayer game with such crap server support, just should not happen these days

  • El-Dev #49 3 years ago

    Haven't had one problem, it's excellent as well but the grenades are shit.

  • n3rdh8r #50 3 years ago

    no dice here in holland :(((

  • sickpuppysoftware #51 3 years ago

    PS3 version seemed fine. Joined a game no problem.

  • mafarreco #52 3 years ago

    Oh man!
    I just got disconnected from a game :(
    Guess tomorrow is another day fun... hope so.
    Maf

  • copper08 #53 3 years ago

    I'm on the ps3 and mine works perfect, and getting a squad of mates and joining a game also works perfect. That crap normally never works for me.

  • gizmo #54 3 years ago

    Disgusting - I've paid for this, SURELY they knew there would be demand! Wed night got about a solid hour in after all sorts of issues, then last night couldn't connect to a game for about half an hour so gave up.

    edit: on 360
    Edited by 1 at 10/07/09 @ 08:37

  • EVILKNIVIL #55 3 years ago

    i got this game the 1st second on ps3 and havent got a game yet wtf:( . if u no wat 2 do please tell i would apreciate it

  • EVILKNIVIL #56 3 years ago

    it said joinin game then said server not available

  • EVILKNIVIL #57 3 years ago

    Optyk u must be havin the same problems as me mate