Just a few months ago, 343 announced that Halo 5 will run on dedicated servers. Later, they announced that these dedicated servers will only run on custom lobbies, disappointing a lot of people*. Nevertheless, the fact that Halo 5 will have dedicated servers for custom lobbies will not only get rid of host problems that fans from every FPS game complain about, but it also opens the doors for many more opportunities in competitive Halo.
*Edit: The dedicated servers will be run throughout all parts of the online experience.
Leagues
If you haven’t found out yet, Halo 5 will have a massive online league run by 343. The specifics of how this league will work are unclear, but with dedicated servers being in Halo 5 custom lobbies, it would make sense for the majority of league matches to be played online. It is great for the Pro and AM teams as well since they can no longer legitimately complain about host, which makes each league match more interesting, therefore bringing in more viewers.
Online Tournaments
A major problem tournament organizers have had in the past was people disputing matches over laggy connection. Hopefully with Halo 5’s dedicated servers, people won’t complain about connection and tournament organizers can run tournaments much more smoothly.
Larger Population of Players
With Halo 5 looking to be the top competitive game on the Xbox One this year, we are already expecting an increased population of players. With dedicated servers being in Halo 5, I am now expecting an even larger population of players coming to Halo than originally predicted. Like I said earlier, players in every FPS title complain about connection all the time, so for custom games on Halo 5 to not be laggy, it will get a lot of people’s attention and possibly convince them to get more involved in the game.
More Support from Organizations
Although Halo has seen a lot of support from large organizations recently due to ESL partnering with 343, I would expect that the little to no lag in league matches will interest many other organizations. Although I have always believed that many smaller organizations will get involved in Halo 5, I now believe that we will also get many more large organizations involved as well. Though the $1,000,000 League from 343 should be enough to gain their attention, the fact that there will be dedicated servers in every custom game should definitely convince many of them that a Halo 5 team is a pretty good investment.
There are many great features coming into Halo 5. We will see in the coming months why dedicated servers are a very good investment and how it will greatly benefit the community as a whole. Halo 5 has a lot of potential and from what I have been seeing lately, everything is going great.
What do you think about dedicated servers in Halo 5? Do you think it is a good investment by 343? Let me know in the comments section below.
