Battlefield Portal exposed a pathology. Groups of players create tiny maps and immediately shoot at spawning people

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Okay, so Battlefield Portal in the new Battlefield is seriously cool, but honestly, I’ve been running into a bunch of bugs and some maps are just… brutal. Like, ridiculously easy to get stuck and killed in. It’s got so much potential, but these issues are really holding it back right now.

It’s impossible for game developers to please every player, no matter how much effort they put in. That’s why players have always created their own servers – starting with games like the original *Counter-Strike*, and continuing today with platforms like Roblox.

Battlefield Portal was created for this very reason. But, to be frank, launching it with a Battlefield game many considered the weakest in the series didn’t exactly get fans excited about trying it out. And the initial version of the mode was disappointing, lacking several essential features.

Battlefield Portal under siege

It’s fair to say that Portal truly came into its own with the release of Battlefield 6. This installment is performing much better than the last one (so far, which is a big improvement over BF 2042), and the Portal mode launched in a much more polished state. The map editor has more tools, the interface is user-friendly, and creators have a lot more freedom – it’s clear EA DICE learned from the issues with their previous release four years ago.

We ran into a few issues. Many players received an error saying they’d hit the “global game limit,” which means the Battlefield Portal servers were experiencing too much traffic.

This problem has happened before, and it’s not unexpected given issues with *Battlefield 2042*. Battlefield 6 recently had almost 700,000 players online at the same time on Steam. That’s six times more than the previous game in the series and the highest number of concurrent players ever for an EA game on Steam.

It’s not unexpected that the servers are struggling, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating for players. Many are using these issues as further justification for wanting dedicated, local server options. However, it’s understandable why Electronic Arts hasn’t implemented those yet.

Deadly portals

Honestly, what gets under my skin is that a lot of servers are filled with these pointless, grind-focused sessions. You join a server hoping for vehicle combat and huge maps, but you end up in this tiny arena where everyone just immediately shoots anyone who spawns. It’s especially rough for new players, because it basically lets experienced gamers easily farm XP off of us. It’s super frustrating!

It’s frustrating that these kinds of unfair matches happen, but thankfully they aren’t widespread. While they do take up server space, preventing legitimate players from enjoying the game, they don’t seem to be a common occurrence. Basically, some players are exploiting new players for experience points, and it’s annoying, but not a full-blown epidemic.

Battlefield 6 (BF6) has a system for reporting problematic servers, and the developers actively encourage players to share their feedback – both positive and negative – on Reddit. David Surland, the game’s Lead Producer, announced this commitment to player feedback, and shortly after, the first update (a “hotfix”) was released. This initial patch addressed a bug that caused players to lose momentum while jumping.

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2025-10-13 16:02