Halo 5 Uses Dedicated Servers for All Multiplayer, Including Custom Games

343 Industries is doing away with peer-to-peer connections for the next Halo game's online multiplayer.

Halo 5: Guardians' online multiplayer mode exclusively uses dedicated servers, even when playing custom games.

This news comes by way of executive producer Josh Holmes, who responded to a question about dedicated servers on the Beyond Entertainment forums. "We only have dedicated servers for MP in Halo 5: Guardians," Holmes wrote. "That's true for matchmaking AND customs. There is no P2P."

What this means is that you'll never have to rely on problematic peer-to-peer connections when playing multiplayer, even when it's simply a custom game you've set up with your friends online. This has not been the case in the past, resulting in what's known as Host Advantage, which refers to the edge that the player serving as the connection host has in peer-to-peer games.

Most recently, Halo: The Master Chief Collection used a combination of dedicated servers and peer-to-peer, with all custom games (and online campaign missions) using the latter.

Following its multiplayer beta earlier this year, Guardians is set for release sometime this fall. We should be learning more about the game soon, as a teaser website recently went live that's counting down to March 22 at 6 PM Pacific.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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MrBlondeX

Chris Pereira

Twitter/Xbox Live/PSN/Nintendo Network: TheSmokingManX
Halo 5: Guardians

Halo 5: Guardians

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71 comments
voreo
voreo

people mentioning MCC fail to realize that the entirety of that was done by 4 different studios :| thats why it had so many problems

UnrealPro
UnrealPro

I thought 343 "did away with" peer to peer and use dedicated servers for MCC? Yeah, look how that turned out...

ghiacciolo79
ghiacciolo79

bout fakking time! now get rid of stupid match making and bring back the master servers list, so everyone can choose where to play!

k9kal85
k9kal85

I am still dumbfounded why all online games are not going to dedicated servers.

vegasdog
vegasdog

@k9kal85  It's not even possible for Sony, MS is leading the way on this, Sony is way behind and it will show in a couple of months when Win 10 comes out.

pspearman
pspearman

@k9kal85  It's expensive and the game becomes unplayable once the servers are shut off

Archangel3371
Archangel3371

Awesome. I loved the beta and am very much looking forward to the full game.

lorider25
lorider25

this might be releasing for the PC like some speculated...

steve_esquire
steve_esquire

It's great news, but wasn't this supposed to be for every game? Didn't MS say that all X1 games would have dedicated servers? Especially exclusives.

utopaline1
utopaline1

@steve_esquire yes, but the devs have to be behind it as well. Cross plats don't get it because they are too lazy to write the code

bdrtfm
bdrtfm

Should be standard for all FPS. At least while the game is new and has a large audience.

mattcake
mattcake

The one thing I miss the most about PC gaming - them dedicated servers.

Thanatos2k
Thanatos2k

These are fake dedicated servers.  Real dedicated servers are ones you run yourself, that you can mod yourself.


Real dedicated servers are on PC FPS games.

Thanatos2k
Thanatos2k

@bdrtfm @Thanatos2k What it meant is important, because sadly people have accepted the inferiority of dev-owned dedicated servers, which allow them to take away modding functionality.

Thanatos2k
Thanatos2k

@nl_skipper @Thanatos2k Dedicated servers meant ones you ran.  Then console companies twisted the meaning.  Real shooter fans know what they are.

frigginjoe
frigginjoe

@Thanatos2k @bdrtfm A dedicated server is a dedicated server.  As in a client isn't also hosting the server.  It never meant anything more except for when the term was used or associated otherwise inaccurately

Spartan_418
Spartan_418

@Thanatos2k "real shooter fans"

Remember how I reprimanded Gelugon_baat the other day for being pretentious? 

bdrtfm
bdrtfm

@Thanatos2k  Not sure why you are arguing semantics? Its a dedicated server. What that term meant years ago is irrelevant.

pspearman
pspearman

@Thanatos2k @nl_skipper  No, dedicated servers are servers that are dedicated to serving the online games, the clue is in the name.


What you are referring to are community run servers.

Too-DementeD
Too-DementeD

Dedicated servers is great news for any competitive game. No unfair host advantage is always a plus.

unreal849
unreal849

@Too-DementeD It's actually kind of funny when it gets really bad. Especially dying in cod by a shot fired five seconds ago.

Razor10000
Razor10000

people pay for xboxlive. they should have dedicated servers for all games.

P2P connections cost nothing to sony or microsoft. why the hell can´t people play online games without paying for psplus or xboxlive? oh right...greedy companies.

rasdorx
rasdorx

@Razor10000 @rasdorx True but they are probably not P2P but client server based networks that sony and microsoft use. 

Razor10000
Razor10000

@rasdorx @Razor10000 yes probably, but not allowing people to play multiplayer games because they don´t have psplus or xboxlive is stupid. not everyone wants to pay or can pay for psplus or xboxlive. P2P connection is the solution for that. 

making consoles more accessible to people will only help sony and microsoft sell consoles and mp games but they are to greedy to see that.

rasdorx
rasdorx

@Razor10000 @rasdorx Yes but if we didn't pay then they would have sh*t servers if any. Plus P2P isn't a solution because now you limiting even more people to pay MP games because not every one has good internet so they wouldn't play MP games because they would be too laggy. 

Razor10000
Razor10000

@rasdorx @Razor10000 the solution is simple.

psplus/xboxlive = dedicated servers

no psplus/xboxlive = P2P connections


exacly like pc gaming have been doing since ever.

internet speed are much fastter now. lag isn´t a problem in P2P.

Adam802
Adam802

Nice!
Halo still s h i t s on ANYTHING ps4 has to offer

sandman338
sandman338

@Thanatos2k @Adam802  I always laugh when I hear someone say 'bro shooters'... like a bunch of jocks are online playing FPS instead of a bunch of nerds like me.

Spartan_418
Spartan_418

@Thanatos2k Your opinion of a console game would mean more if you demonstrated that you had actually played it.

This is my problem with PC gamers, and the reason I don't count myself among the "master race". PC gamers have an unusual tendency to bash games they haven't played, purely based on which platform they're on.

Too-DementeD
Too-DementeD

@Adam802 Hey man, you don't need to reinforce your shaken beliefs in front of us. It's cool.

Spartan_418
Spartan_418

@faizanhd That's a strange assumption for you to make, and an incorrect one.

I'm a multiplatform gamer, I own a decent PC and when I buy multiplats they're usually the PC versions. If I had to choose just one gaming platform it would be PC. I was playing KSP a few minutes ago.

However, I don't feel the need to constantly bash console games.

The assertion that Halo 5 is a "mediocre bro shooter" is based solely off of it being an Xbox One game, not much else. 

herbie12282
herbie12282

i really liked what i played of the Halo 5 beta and seeing how fast that game is going to play, i think it's a smart move for them to ditch the P2P connections.  Now if we could just get all multiplayer games that involve reaction time to ditch P2P connections we'll be headed in a great direction.

unreal849
unreal849

@rasdorx @unreal849 @herbie12282 I couldn't tell. I had moments of super-smooth lag-free gameplay, and then other times where enemies "teleported", or I got lag-kills for shots that I clearly should have missed.

rasdorx
rasdorx

@unreal849 @rasdorx @herbie12282 I think it was because I had a much better experience then games that do P2P. But i did have some lag kills but not as bad as other games I would have to say it was along the line playing titanfall lag for me at least so it was good but hits some rough spots every now and then.

unreal849
unreal849

@rasdorx @unreal849 @herbie12282 Well, as long as it works, I'm excited. I didn't really get into Halo 4 MP (only stuck around for 3-4 weeks), so I'm hoping this takes me back to halo 3-like levels of enthusiasm. Those were the times.

rasdorx
rasdorx

@unreal849 @rasdorx @herbie12282 I like Halo 5 multiplayer thought it was greeat and added enough new but still felt like the old. I had troubles with it but they will probably have the issues hopefully fixed by launch. I can't wait till the 22nd though for what ever that tumblr site will be.