Dead Rising 3 networking suffered with more than two players
It's not that Xbox One launch game Dead Rising 3 can't support more than two players in online co-op, but during some "rough tests," developer Capcom Vancouver found it be too stressful on the network connection. "Obviously we'd like to have three players, four players, more players, and we did some rough tests, and the networking fidelity started to break down," producer Mike Jones revealed to OXM.
More players in the sandbox also presents a problem when it comes to zombie AI, which not only governs where zombies spawn but also pushes hordes to identify and engage players. It's enough stress on the game to account for two players independently running around Los Perdidos, Dead Rising 3's sandbox, but when you add more players "it becomes this crazy, exponentially more complicated problem."
Jones added, however, that more human players is something the developer is "definitely going to explore." But, for Dead Rising 3, it's more about focusing on "a meaningful two player co-op experience" that builds upon the co-op groundwork laid by Dead Rising 2. "But yeah, I'm a big versus player, I love that stuff, so I think in the future we're definitely going to explore how we can get more players in there."
We were able to check out a near-final build of Dead Rising 3 at Microsoft's Xbox One showcase event last week. In our preview, we talked about the joy of creating new weapons and vehicles, and discussed the frame rate issues that arose when tearing around Los Perdidos in any kind of speedy conveyance.
