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Despite EA recently reporting that Firestorm, Battlefield 5's battle royale mode, has been a huge success for the publisher this year, it seems that a certain part of the world has been left out from enjoying the last-man-standing death matches.
The continent of Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and a number of smaller island nations, is home to over 40 million people, but anyone who wants to play Firestorm within the region has been running into serious trouble.
According to a Reddit post from an Australian native by the name of Ciaran Doherty, it is "essentially impossible to play [Battlefield 5] at any time of day in any mode", and Firestorm itself is "effectively discontinued" in the region. The problems, it seems, stem from an untenably low ping range, which represents the connection strength to DICE's own multiplayer servers.
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"For all intents and purposes, there is no such thing as Firestorm in this continent", Doherty continues, "and to EA/DICE, your marketing material should reflect this. Please do not advertise Firestorm here, there are no players, no functional servers and no possibility for anyone buying the game for Firestorm to actually get what they paid for."
Doherty's claims are corroborated by hundreds of comments in the Reddit post confirming the same thing, though DICE itself has yet to offer an official statement on the matter. Gamers in Oceania are used to experiencing unusual server issues in new multiplayer games, but developers eventually manage to iron out these problems over time, usually by allowing players to choose a different region from their own.
Sadly, Firestorm's turbulence in Oceania is likely leading to a viscous cycle that contributes to a dwindling player count in Battlefield 5, where users across the continent stop playing the game because of its server issues, leaving those who stay on with even less regional players to connect to. We'll see if DICE step in to save the game from this downward spiral, but things are not looking good at present...
See where Battlefield 5 ends up in our list of the best Battlefield games here, or watch the video below for more details on what's out this week in the world of entertainment.
