Have you ever seen that gif of the guy opening the fridge only to find nothing inside? Well, that’s Battlefield fans at the moment, trying to play Battlefield 6 Early Access.
According to Steamdb, almost 25,000 people were online at once trying to enter Battlefield 6 Early Access. The only hitch? It’s not live yet.
It seems that overly excited gamers have got their dates mixed up, as Battlefield’s early access starts at 9am BST August 7-8. Until then, gamers will keep opening the fridge to find nothing but disappointment and a long queue to join servers which are under maintenance before the online early access period.
The Early Access dates are only available to those with a code, which were Twitch Drops given by watching content creators who took part in the Multiplayer Live Reveal Event, so if you didn’t get a code, don’t log in until Battlefield 6’s Open Beta, which runs August 9-10. The second open beta weekend runs August 16-17.
So don’t be the fridge guy, and leave it closed until August 7th if you have a code, or August 9th if you don’t. Before you play, you’ll want to download the latest patch, which is 6.8 GB. Downloading it ahead of time will prevent any delays before jumping into the action.
Battlefield 6 to have bot ‘backfill’
According to a developer Q&A session held in Taiwan, Battlefield 6 will feature bot backfill, the practice of Bots filling up empty servers.
The devs have set a goal of allowing as many players to play with their friends as possible, but that would naturally mean teams becoming more imbalanced than if players were forced to pick opposing teams when one side becomes too full.
The bots seem to be in order to prevent that scenario, leading to empty halves of servers, with one or two players having to face a full squad as opposition. However, players have met the news with mixed reactions.
One player on Reddit stated, “I hate compulsory bots because it’s just so unsatisfying when you land a sick kill and it’s just some AI which is always set to piss easy. It’s my biggest gripe with Rivals.” Another said, “I would take 40 players on a 64 population server over anything with bots”
Luckily, it likely will not be an issue at least immediately upon Battlefield 6’s launch. With almost 25k waiting before the early access has even started, having empty slots that can’t be filled feels months away at a minimum.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.