For many gamers, dedicated servers are not just a welcome addition to online multiplayer, but a necessity. This morning - to the dismay of some fans - developer Naughty Dog stated that there will be no dedicated servers in their upcoming blockbuster Uncharted 3, despite the franchises' push towards and emphasis on online play for the title.

"We're not going to have dedicated servers, made that decision long time ago + we built the current player host-client architecture."

While dedicated servers do offer more stability than a P2P connection, there are some drawbacks to using them, such as the chance that they may be taken offline prematurely, a point Naughty Dog made sure to reiterate in discussion Uncharted 3:

"The cost delta btwn dedicated & non-dedicated is huge long term. Eventually someone will say it costs too great + shut them down.  My personal hope is that by keeping costs down + strong enough community, we could be in a position to consider 4+ yrs of uptime”.

Though dedicated servers are an ideal solution for latency in online games, they can cost a small fortune to keep running, and after the player base begins to drop some games may see a closure of their online services. This is not limited to Naughty Dog and Sony however; recently EA has begun shutting down online services for their older titles. A more recent example is the shut down of Grid's PC and PS3 servers. By using a P2P structure (found in many other titles such as the console of versions of Call of Duty) Naughty Dog will be able to support and keep the game running for a long time and players will be able to enjoy the game without fear that the servers could be shut off at any time.

Uncharted 3 Dedicated Servers

Uncharted 2 ran fine for many people, and there were few complaints of latency. While dedicated servers could give a better connection to all, it may seem a bit superfluous in a game with a smaller player count (as opposed to a game like MAG which requires a solid connection for all 256 players).  Do you prefer dedicated servers over P2P, and will this decision effect how much time you spend in Uncharted 3's multiplayer mode?

Uncharted 3 releases November 1st, 2011 for the PS3.

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Source: Naughty Dog