John Carmack, co-founder and technical wizard of the developer, says the company doesn’t plan to support dedicated servers for the multiplayer component of “Rage,” id’s upcoming new action game.
“It’s not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don’t think we will have dedicated servers,” he says.
Infinity Ward made the same decision for “Modern Warfare 2” and has been facing a massive backlash among its fans. The inevitable online petition has gathered over 183,000 signatures and even the developer has acknowledged the backlash.
“Modern Warfare 2” will use a matchmaking setup powered by IWNET for online play. It’s too early to say what Rage will use, but Carmack indicated he believed the servers are something of a remnant of the early days of PC gaming.
That said, he realizes the affinity many PC gamers have for them – and is glad “Rage” won’t be leading the charge away from them.
“The great thing is we won’t have to be a pioneer on that,” he says. “We’ll see how it works out for everyone else.”