Friday the 13th: The Game was widely praised as a unique, engrossing multiplayer experience when it was released earlier this year. However, technical issues marred its launch for many — but now its developer has opened up on how the underlying infrastructure is going to be improved in an effort to remedy things.
A post on the official Friday the 13th: The Game community forum states that the title won't be switching to a host migration system, despite widespread requests for that to happen. Basically, it boils down to time, as that particular solution would take at least six months to get up and running.
Furthermore, it's been decided that host migration might not be a particularly good fix for this particular game, despite it being implemented successfully on other titles. The developers have observed that players tend to leave their room to find a new game soon after the host drops their connection, which negates some of the technique's advantages.
"We’re talking about a good 30-60 second delay for a host switch and in that time is fairly common for users to quit," wrote Gun Media's community manager, Ben Strauss. "The potential for multiple interruptions for host migration is a very real possibility, especially knowing that users tend to leave the moment they are killed. We also have an issue if the host is Jason and they disconnect or quit; no one would be picked as a new Jason."
Instead, the studio is going with dedicated servers, which Strauss refers to as a "full fix" rather than the "band aid" of host migration. Console players can expect smoother performance, the removal of any host advantage, and generally an experience that's closer to that of the PC version of the game.
However, there's plenty of work to be done. Gun Media needs to perform stringent testing, and Sony and Microsoft both need to complete their own certification processes. It's estimated that the new system will be ready for September, but that date could easily slip into October.
Friday the 13th: The Game is available now for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.