Battlefield 4 won't have co-op due to 'focus' on single and multiplayer

Battlefield 4 won't have a cooperative mode, according to a translated interview with DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson.

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While Battlefield 4's debut suggests you'll be accompanied by a squad throughout the campaign, the upcoming DICE shooter won't sport a cooperative mode. DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson says the decision was made so that the developer can focus more on new single player and multiplayer modes.

The news comes from a machine-translated interview with IGN Benelux (via Videogamer). When contacted for confirmation regarding the translation, an EA representative told Shacknews: "Karl's comments are accurate."

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  • reply
    March 28, 2013 1:25 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Battlefield 4 won't have co-op due to 'focus' on single and multiplayer.

    Battlefield 4 won't have a cooperative mode, according to a translated interview with DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson.

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      March 28, 2013 1:29 PM

      Well, cross that one off of my list.

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        March 28, 2013 4:29 PM

        Why? I'm not saying this as a fan of the series but to point out that Co-op was not the emphasis of the series. The meager co-op modes offered on BF3 were lackluster.

        In short, if you had co-op in mind with the next BF game, I'd say that it was never on your list to begin with.

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      March 28, 2013 1:29 PM

      Was BF3 co-op any good? I could never get it to work.

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        March 28, 2013 1:33 PM

        No.

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        March 28, 2013 1:38 PM

        I was okay but it is no big loss. Multiplayer is what counts. I want more details about the Commander and squad system.

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          March 28, 2013 2:22 PM

          Yeah, they better bring back the commander role from BF2 - something that BF3 lacked, and needed (or I wanted really badly.)

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          March 28, 2013 4:33 PM

          Have they said they are going to do commander?

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        March 28, 2013 2:04 PM

        It was just ok. Only real reason to do it was for the unlocks. I still need to get one last unlock.

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          March 28, 2013 2:05 PM

          plus helicopter piloting. I am terrible but a buddy got really good by replaying the coop mission.

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        March 28, 2013 8:32 PM

        Negative , neither was the singleplayer.

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      March 28, 2013 1:34 PM

      GAH that is a real bummer. those 6(?) missions of coop was a nice addition. sigh.

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      March 28, 2013 1:36 PM

      As long as the multiplayer is good, i'm good

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      March 28, 2013 1:38 PM

      wow gee golly i didn't see that coming.. BF is doo doo

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      March 28, 2013 1:51 PM

      BATTLEFI4LD

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      March 28, 2013 2:00 PM

      Damn you Matt Lebanc you're everywhere!

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      March 28, 2013 2:08 PM

      Offline bots? Bueller? Bueller?

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      March 28, 2013 2:13 PM

      I thought co-op was fun, dual sniping in paris one memorable mission. Kinda buggy and I don't mind if they instead focus on mp.

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        March 28, 2013 5:40 PM

        I enjoyed it as well, and i'm suprised they're dropping it.

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      March 28, 2013 2:17 PM

      fine with me. Hell, drop the single player too.

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        March 28, 2013 3:10 PM

        Agreed, i never played beyond the second or first level... It felt terrible.

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          March 28, 2013 5:14 PM

          I bet I haven't played 5 minutes of SP in battlefield

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        March 28, 2013 5:42 PM

        I agree on all accounts.

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        March 28, 2013 8:33 PM

        Precisely sir!

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        March 28, 2013 8:58 PM

        I play the SP campaigns and never really get into online. SP is the strongest aspect of the game. You guys think we're a minority. We are, but only on SHACKNEWS. That's why the focus is always big with SP and then Multi.

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      March 28, 2013 2:46 PM

      Well, that's one potential resource sink cut. Now, about the other...

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        March 28, 2013 3:30 PM

        Hey man, careful with those cuts. Many of us enjoy the multiplayer.

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      March 28, 2013 3:02 PM

      I love how whenever a feature like co-op is eliminated, it's for more "focus". But when Bioshock 2 or Mass Effect 3 add multiplayer, it doesn't take anything away from the game because "it's a completely separate team".

      Just a side note, not complaining about this specific instance. I probably won't miss co-op being left out of a Battlefield game. Honestly they could leave out SP too if it got more maps, vehicles, etc. for the MP.

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      March 28, 2013 3:08 PM

      that focus will result in 'commander mode' and a level editor. lol

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      March 28, 2013 4:21 PM

      Good, focus on the Multiplayer!

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      March 28, 2013 4:27 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 28, 2013 4:28 PM

      yes spend that extra dev time adding in-game voip you fucks

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        March 28, 2013 4:32 PM

        I know. Morons for not having it in bf3. I don't care if there were any technical reasons/excuses for not having it; basic usability that should have been there in the first place, especially since the gameplay is supposed to promote teamwork.

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      March 28, 2013 4:30 PM

      Coop would be the only thing that gets me interested in the single player campaign. You're already running around with a squad of dudes, why not let other people control them instead of having worthless AI tag along?

      Must be far too scripted towards to main player to deal with multiple players without breaking all over the place in some way or another. Oh well.

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        March 28, 2013 5:16 PM

        If your picking up a "BF" game for SP, you're already in the wrong place.

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          March 28, 2013 5:45 PM

          [deleted]

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            March 28, 2013 6:10 PM

            We know Battlefield doesn't need single player because we've been playing it from the beginning with 1942. Look around though, there are no $50-60 multiplayer only shooters. Multiplayer only fps games are either free to play now or budget releases and have been for years. EA wants a big blockbuster to compete with Call of Duty and so that's what they turned Battlefield into. You probably won't see a Call of Duty game ship without SP even though MP is where the longevity and playerbase is retained.

            The reality of the situation is that many people buy these games for the SP and pretties and never really touch the MP. That's who they are making the single player for, not us who prefer the multiplayer. All I'm saying is, if they actually had coop I might be interested in it. Same as how I don't give a fuck about a game like Halo, but the coop can still be fun. That's all.

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              March 28, 2013 6:37 PM

              [deleted]

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                March 28, 2013 6:49 PM

                In Bad Company 1 & 2, the single player wasn't a weird or shockingly awful afterthought. The campaign was a significant part of those games and their success on the consoles.

                Speaking of, console players this generation have only known the major Battlefield games as having single player, except for the budget priced downloadable, Battlefield 1943. ($15) This goes back to what I said about multiplayer only shooters being budget titles or free to play.

                If they excluded the campaign from BF3 or BF4 there would be plenty of people out there who'd think the high cost of the game isn't worth it for multiplayer alone. Again, we know Battlefield as multiplayer focused experience and wouldn't feel that way, many people however do not and want both. Even if the SP is garbage. They don't care.

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                  March 28, 2013 8:05 PM

                  [deleted]

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                    March 28, 2013 8:06 PM

                    [deleted]

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                      March 29, 2013 4:25 AM

                      I know people who play BF3 on the Xbox, and I try to explain how much better the graphics are on the pc with a decent computer. They just don't understand. They see the commercials on tv and are like AMG that looks amazing. My co-worker and I bought BF3 for the Xbox to play with one of them, I made it an hour due to the small conquest maps specifically(I knew the graphics were bad coming in) and I couldn't take it, I think he might have made it 3 hours.

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          March 28, 2013 5:50 PM

          I'm not, not in the least. I'd rather have all the effort go to the multiplayer, but if they are going to waste resources on SP, coop is the only thing that would make it worthwhile for me.

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      March 28, 2013 4:31 PM

      Marry BF3 with BC2 and I'll be happy with BF4.

      Large scale maps with sufficient environment destruction.

      BF3 had only one real disappointing aspect in that the stage destruction was seriously toned down from BC2.

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        March 28, 2013 5:11 PM

        The destruction was cool but just got dumb at a point. having all of the buildings leveled on a map after 20 minutes was cool in theory but terrible in practice. its not fun to spawn into a flattened arena only to get picked off by snipers and tanks a mile away.

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          March 28, 2013 5:59 PM

          On the other hand, if snipers are holed up in some impossible to reach building, I'd like to drop a JDAM on it like the U.S. military has been doing for the last decade. Good examples of this would be all of Gulf of Oman, the guyed mast on Caspian Border, all of Sharqi Peninsula and the distilling towers on Kharg and Firestorm.

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          March 28, 2013 6:56 PM

          Refine it of course.

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      March 28, 2013 4:34 PM

      Too bad there's still orange triangles above everyone head. So when a helo or plane aims in a general direction and presses 'Q', you're spotted by everyone. Even through that plane or helo would have had no idea you were even there....

      I'm done with battlefield, it has become a generic run and gun shooter. Played 1000+ hours of BF2, only 300 of BF3.

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        March 28, 2013 4:40 PM

        The removal of commander mode did leave me disappointed.

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        March 28, 2013 4:52 PM

        Only 300?

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          March 28, 2013 5:15 PM

          That'sh a Sheventy pershent decreash in value! How outrageoush!

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        March 28, 2013 5:10 PM

        Come play Planetside 2. Its the most MP fun I've had since BF2.

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        March 28, 2013 5:44 PM

        They are supposedly adding commander and other features back into battlefield 4...

        Im not sure what made bf3 so bad? its an improvement in nearly every way other than the voicecom being on battlelog... which hopefully they learned their lesson with that.

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          March 29, 2013 1:25 PM

          Regenerating Health
          Regenerating vehicle armor...wtf?
          Unlimited ammo in vehicles
          3D spotting
          4 Man squads
          4 classes
          Unlimited sprint = even more bunny hoppers
          Small maps (their big but the flags are clustered)
          Client-side hit detection

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        March 28, 2013 8:06 PM

        try hardcore mode.

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      March 28, 2013 5:09 PM

      I'm ok with this. I give zero fucks about co-op in these types of games these days. Hell, I don't even need SP for BF4. I just want the best MP experience they can give me.

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      March 28, 2013 5:43 PM

      I gotta admit, I never got around to it in BF3.

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      March 28, 2013 6:58 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 29, 2013 4:23 PM

      Works for me - I have zero interest in co-op anyway.

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