Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer Uses Peer-to-Peer Matchmaking

Here’s perhaps the first real bad news for Bioware’s Mass Effect: Andromeda, at least for those who enjoyed the multiplayer – it won’t have dedicated servers.

This was confirmed by producer Fernando Melo on Twitter who noted that multiplayer would have peer-to-peer servers. Cross-play was also “not in the current plans”.

Here’s the thing though: Mass Effect 3 also didn’t have dedicated servers, instead relying on P2P servers. It wasn’t all that bad…except if you had friends in Australia. In that case, it stands to reason that many of the lag issues would still be present.

There’s also the matter of P2P servers being susceptible to exploitation by hackers. Since Mass Effect: Andromeda’s multiplayer isn’t competitive, instead focused more on wave-based Horde mode combat, this does mean that Bioware will be busy banning those who exploit.

We’re still waiting for news on the multiplayer beta of Mass Effect: Andromeda, which releases on March 21st for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Stay tuned for more information.