Star Wars Battlefront won't have dedicated voice chat
And PC gamers, in particular, are upset.
Multiplayer-focused Star Wars Battlefront won't have dedicated voice chat on any platform, EA has confirmed.
In a tweet the company suggested PC gamers use third-party software to talk to each other.
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions use the consoles' built-in party systems for in-game chat.
News that the PC version won't have dedicated voice chat has sparked a vociferous debate, with some criticising the decision, others saying it's as expected.
Critics say the move prevents strangers from talking together, and as a result makes working together as a team harder.
Some say there was an expectation that Star Wars Battlefront would include dedicated in-game chat, as DICE's previous game, Battlefield 4, did include voice chat on PC.
Others suggest dedicated voice chat would have gone unused, and so it's no surprise to find DICE leave the feature out. As Redditor Michael Coltaine commented:
This isn't the first time DICE has come under fire from PC gamers over the feature set of Star Wars Battlefront.
In September DICE confirmed the game would not feature a server browser. Instead, it uses a new "skill-based" matchmaking system.
The reaction to that news was overwhelmingly negative, with many criticising the decision particularly in relation to the PC version of the game. Server browsers are popular among many players of multiplayer-focused titles because they offer choice, letting players search for games using filters such as ping, map, number of players, game modes and, perhaps most importantly, presence of friends.
Much of the anger has to do with an expectation that Star Wars Battlefront would work similarly to DICE's Battlefield series, which has featured a server browser for a number of years.
But Star Wars Battlefront already deviates from the Battlefield formula in a number of important ways. For example, Battlefront players can freely pick their weapons and gear, whereas soldier classes are staples of the Battlefield series.
Instead of squads, another Battlefield staple, Battlefront uses its Partners feature that lets two players play together. Here, the two players can see each other on their heads-up display and spawn on each other.
"We're not taking into account what we've done before, because I think that would be disrespectful to the fans, and to what we're trying to achieve here," executive producer Patrick Bach has said.
"A lot of the things you saw in the game have nothing to do with anything we've done before. Some features of course resemble [our other shooters], because we want to make the best possible shooter, but in general we've tried to do something completely unique."
