The big issues with free dedicated servers, or rather the lack of, are a) clans *want* unranked servers for competitive play, b) having to rent dedicated servers is basically a monthly fee just like in an MMO, c) these trusted partners might not offer dedicated servers in most countries like Finland. Most of you OC.uk users don't have to worry about this since UK is a major market like US and few others, but what about the other ~190 countries in the world? It's instantly a huge disadvantage if every Finn has to play with 60ms+ latency instead of 10ms especially in competitive play.
To me it seems like Dice just decided to completely ignore the competitive side of their fanbase exactly like Infinity Ward did with MW2. Dice had everything to win but with this decision they lost the exact same crowd IW did. Might not mean much to most of you but sooner or later one fps will swoop the world and rise to the top of competitive gaming. And that game will be in a good shape for years to come.
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On Nail Head