Far Cry 3 Multiplayer “Does Not Support Dedicated Servers”

Ubisoft has confirmed that Far Cry 3’s multiplayer will not use dedicated servers. Ubisoft’s community manager MSV-Vextor revealed this information on the official Far Cry 3 Discussion forum.

The online experience does not support dedicated servers.

To no one’s surprise, the community (specifically, the PC community) wasn’t too happy with this news. One user, Jinxswe, wanted more than a simple statement and dug for more information. This user asked the following:

How can you se this as the best way? With lobby games u get Lots and lots and lots of lag. A DS u can have faster download on maps. Stabel ping over the game. Been able to kick/ban cheaters or idiots.
Crashing lobbys. Hosts disconnecting. Host with bad internet connection. And allsow lobby games dies out much faster then games with servers.

I dont thinks so… No servers means lobby games. Lobby games means its easyer to make a mod/patch/hack so ppl with a downloaded game can play the game online.
With servers its harder. A server can be updated more often and will be harder to pirate

MSV-Vector replied to Jinxswe, attempting to counteract and doubt. Below you can find his mini Q&A-styled response:

There were a bunch of statements in there, so I’ll have to answer them in order:

“-With lobby games you get lots of lag”
That is entirely dependent on the host and if the game itself takes resources from the machine that could be better used to run a server. If the game is well optimized and the players have good connections, there is no problem.

“-A DS has faster downloads on maps.”
The maps are hosted in ‘the cloud’. Same as in FarCry 2. They are not downloaded from the server itself.

“-Stable ping.”
Again, more dependent on the host’s connection as well as the network architecture. The server being dedicated or not has less to do with that.

“-Being able to kick/ban cheaters or idiots”
That’s a decision relating to how we want to handle the game. We have anti-cheating mechanisms in place on PC – and on consoles there is a whole other set of problems for anyone who decides to try and cheat.

“-Crashing lobbys, hosts disconnecting”.
That’s why we have something called “Host Migration” in place. It transfers the hosting role to another player automatically. It’s quite fast too. Usually takes no more than a few seconds.

“-Lobby games dies out much faster than games with servers.”
I can’t say anything about that, I have never in my gaming or professional career seen any statistics on that.

“-Lobby games are easier to hack than dedicated servers. And are easier to play online with pirated copies” (Paraphrasing)
-Well, yes and no. A dedicated server could be hacked to run without the help of the ‘master servers’. A matchmaking system could be emulated, and then the clients would have to be patched in order to contact the pirated servers instead of the original ones. Each one of those presents their own challenges.

PS. The decision to exclude dedicated server functionality was not taken based on concerns over PC piracy.
I hope that answers all your concerns Jinxswe.

How do you feel about the lack of dedicated servers? Leave a comment and let us know!