Since its launch on October 10, Battlefield 6 has stirred up discussions. Despite a solid start with 7 million copies sold in three days, many players complain of falling into multiplayer games populated by bots. Some even wonder if the game is really as populated as it claims to be.
This November 6, David Sirland, senior producer at Battlefield Studios, spoke on X/Twitter to remove any doubt. According to him, the use of bots meets a specific objective: reduce wait times in multiplayer playlists.
“At that point, the game starts and you can play with the bots instead of waiting,” he explains. “Other players in the same region who are matchmaking on the same playlist will join this server (since you are already registered there). Every time a player joins the game, a bot leaves the game.”
A system designed to avoid empty rooms
According to Sirland, bots only intervene in well-defined cases. If the wait exceeds approximately three minutesbots are introduced to start the game. Once launched, the system continues to replace them with real players as they log in.
This mechanism makes the experience smoother, especially on sparsely populated servers or during off-peak hours. In short: a game with a few bots is better than no game at all.
However, adjustments are being considered. Sirland mentions ongoing testing of the length of time before bots are triggered, and encourages players to provide feedback: “We can and will test longer wait times for starting bots to trigger.”
Useful bots, but not always well received
Certain modes such as “Initiation” integrate bots voluntarily, in order to offer a more accessible environment to new players. But in other playlists, their presence continues to fuel criticism. The subject is not new: as early as the August open beta, EA had already had to respond to concerns around XP farms and the behavior of in-game AI.
Sirland wants to be reassuring: “The bots are only used to initialize the servers so that they can start. In this case, there would simply be no server.”
Battlefield Studios promises to listen to the community. Several changes have already been made since launchparticularly on the challenges, the size of tickets in Conquest or even the return of aim assist parameters inspired by the beta. Season 1 of Battlefield 6 has launched, and players are now hoping for concrete fixes regarding matchmaking… and those famous bots.