Rumour: Battlefield 3 PC Won’t Support Windows XP

We’re classing this as a rumour for now, pending official confirmation from EA, but it’s looking pretty likely: a tweet from Johan Andersson, a developer at DICE, has revealed that the Frostbite 2 engine used in the upcoming Battlefield 3 (our 58th most anticipated game of 2011) will support neither the ageing Windows XP or DirectX 9.

“Frostbite 2 is primarily developed for DX11,” reads the tweet. “XP & DX9 is _not_ supported, 64-bit OS is recommended. Lots of time to upgrade if you havent!” Whilst it’s not an official announcement, coming from a developer on the team does make it seem pretty certain.

Whilst Windows XP is now not far off a decade old, and has since been usurped by two major releases of the operating system, the Steam hardware survey from December shows that a good 25% of gamers that use the service still use it, although that figure is steadily declining (down from around 35% in July).

In terms of DirectX, version 10 was introduced with Windows Vista, followed by 11 with Windows 7, although a compatible graphics card is also required. Once more, referring to the Steam hardware survey, figures from May show that about 57% of users have DirectX 10-compatible systems, with just 5.6% on DirectX 11. Whilst many games in the last couple of years have had DirectX 10- and 11-specific additional effects, Battlefield 3 will be only the second (after Shattered Horizon) to specifically require version 10 or higher.

Battlefield 3 is likely to be revealed at some point at or before the Game Developer Conference 2011 at the end of March, where a number of technical panels about the game will take place, and this rumour will likely be confirmed or denied. EA’s CEO John Riccitiello recently confirmed in an interview that the game will be out towards the end of 2011.

Source: Twitter, via BF3Blog

50 Comments

  1. This for me, is the main reason I don’t game on the PC – as it is, I generally don’t keep up with new releases even on consoles (much as I’d love to), preferring to buy things once they’ve gone down in price a bit, so to keep up with the hardware changes as well would cripple me =P

    Mayhap one day I will be earning a large salary and can actually play some of these titles that I’m missing…

    • I bought a new PC last year, for I think £450, and I can play almost all games in 1080p at highest settings (just a step below top settings for Bad Company 2), that’s with DirectX 11. PC gaming really isn’t as expensive as you might think.

      • I concur

        A PC capable at running the current crop of games at a resolution & framerate exceeding that of consoles costs about as much as a new console does at launch, this will last as long as a console & can be upgraded for around the same price as a console further into its life-span when its had a price-drop or 2

        In addition the games are far cheaper than console.

      • Which is what? £150 more than a PS3 and will play top end stuff for 3 years or less? Sounds pretty expensive

      • PS3 was £450 at launch, many people have replaced that with PS3’s costing £250…

        So the PC+later upgrades costs about the same to me

      • But once you get past 15 games, you’ve got the difference back easily. A new release on consoles comes at £40, often sold for £35, whilst on PC it starts at £30 and often sells for £25…

        So it depends how much you game.

      • Exactly Teflon: there is simply no match for Steam. Take for example the THQ Complete Pack, which is probably the best value on Steam at the moment – even ignoring that the games cost less than their console counterparts to begin with, you can get £230 worth of games for £35.

        Games are so much cheaper on PC that you’d make your money back within a couple of purchases.

      • you guys are forgetting that PS3 games do not get released on the PC

        plus it depends on the style of games you are in to.

        I’ve not played PC games in 15 years (and I ain’t missing much) I have a PS3 and a 360…so I’m pretty much covered…oh…and I have a PC…;)

  2. this is why i never been bothered to pc game,always need the latest stuff to play and the fact playing with keyboard and mouse is pritty nerdy to me lol.. no disrespect to pc gamers ;D cant beat a console with its straight out the box ready to go with no worries about settings and yada yada yada..

    • no you have things like rrod and ylod , i support both forms of gaming but with my personal experience i have had more problems with console reliability than my pc and you certainly get more bang for buck than with a console, (just my personal opinion and no doubt flawed :) )

    • FPS games almost demand keyboard and mouse and you definitely don’t need the latest hardware to enjoy great games. I’m playing my current PC titles with an ATI 4870 1GB graphics card and it’s nearly set to MAX on everything.

      However, there are times when you want to relax in front of a TV with a controller. Good and bad with both situations.

  3. That makes sense i guess. Having to code for earlier versions of Windows/DX would take up more of their development resources and would probably result in a lesser game than they are aiming for.

    Personally, i decided to stick with consoles for my gaming needs since ps1. I tend to use my computer in a workspace type setup anyway ( ie desk and chair) so it’s not ideal for extended gaming sessions. Plus i like the fact that i don’t have to think about system requirements when i buy the latest game for my console.

  4. So it was a good idea to get a DX11 graphics card :) and 64bit windows 7 for that matter.

    • yep what card you got?

      • erm ‘blushes’ I was going to get a 5670 with 1GB RAM, but i read up and it said ou only nearly need 1GB RAM if you have a hi res monitor, so I went for the 512mb , it seems to be very good memory(GDDR5), and my res is 1024×768 , low, I know but i use the same t.v. as the PS3 is hooked up to.
        Plus it overclcoks in overdrive all the way with stock cooling (havn’t tried that yet :P )

        what about you, if you’ve got crossfire/sli respect, please don’t rub it in ! :(

      • I got an Asus radeon 5850 on its own but I overclocked it using asus smart doctor utility, 1ghz core and 4800mhz on the memory, using stock cooling :)
        Might get another one this year and xfire it :)

  5. Recently re-entered PC gaming after a four year break (been PS3 gaming since) and my word I’ve missed it. I purchased this new PC specifically for Battlefield 3.

    I think the biggest aspect I’ve missed about PC gaming is the clarity of graphics and, much to my realisations, the maturity of PC gamers versus console, including the maturity of PC games, e.g. RTS. Difficult to explain to a non PC gamer tbh.

    • I only bought my first PC in 2002 so that i could play Battlefield 1942 ! (same reason i bought a PS3 actually but for the console only BFBC) 8 years on it kicked the bucket and im using a cheap but very quick Dell i got off HUKD . Its got windows 7 and only 1gb of ram , i may well get a nice graphics card and some more memory when BF3 releases , particularly if this bad boy PC version has 64 players .

  6. I swear the bit about DirectX being the minimum is old news?! I’m sure that was announced ages ago.

    • As far as I know, pretty much all we’ve been told about the game at this stage is a) it exists, b) Medal of Honor peeps get beta access and c) it’ll be at GDC.

      Apologies if I’m wrong though, of course.

  7. Had to plug in my PC keyboard for this but whatever:

    I got into the whole PC gaming fad back when Battlefield 1942 came out, at the time I had 1GB Ram a ATI 9200se graphics card and a AMD athlon 3200+ socket 939, being only 14/15 yrs old at the time I neither had the balls nor the intelligence to custom build as a result, the PC came into well over £750, after six months I spent another £400 upgrading, up to 2010 I had easily invested £2000 into my gaming rig which incidentally doesn’t run games that came out in the last two years.

    Sure Pc gaming allows for more extravagant graphics but overall its cost me the equivelent of 6 PS3’s value for money nah not in the slightest so now my silver monolith is dedicated to media and pretty much nothing else.

    I used to thrive in the PC scene attending LAN parties (Multiplay I-series) and generally dismissing consoles as a poor mans PC, How wrong I was, Pc gaming is on the decline with more publishers going multiplatform, the only concern I have is the Xbox360 arcitecture is based on DX9, while the PS3 has a propriety GPU, So can we expect a scaled back version of BF3 for Xbox? There no doubt BF3 on the PC will look stunning, the franchise has always pushed technical boundries, but at what cost?

    • Scrap the pc and build a new one for £500, to be honest all you need to game on a pc is a core 2 quad,4gb ram, win 7 64bit and a decent gpu at £150. Use your HD telly as the monitor and you’ll immediately see the difference from a ps3/360. Furthermore if you want to use your ps3 controllers then buy a bluetooth dongle for £3 off ebay and use motioninjoy drivers to use your ps3 controllers wirelessly :)

      • or you can use the usb cable :P i returned to pc gaming and havent gotten used to the kb and mouse for fps yet so motionjoy and my ds3 do the job :)

      • still too much agro once ya started talking about gpu`s and such u lost me lol.. yep im a consolle boy and always have been for the sheere easyness of out the box gameing. i dont think spectrum 16k,commodore vic20,commodore64 and an amiga counts for a computer gameing lol.

      • Mate building a pc is like using LEGO, everything slots into place and building a pc is going to get easier over the next few years.

        If you want a cheap gaming pc then check this pc out:
        http://www.cclonline.com/product-configure.asp?item=CCL-AMD-ENT

        upgrade to dual core 3.2ghz, 4gb hyper x ram, 500gb hdd, ati radeon 5770, win 7 professional 64bit- all for £489 quid.
        It will suit your gaming needs till a ps4 comes out :)

    • its a fair point to say that pc gaming is dieing but it appears to of been that way for the last decade yet it still exists , i can understand your annoyance at spending so much money but if you had started with a better idea and custom built its likely your pc would of been able to keep up for at least 2-3 years for less than your original cost.Looking forward to what bf3 will be like though, is it being released on consoles ?

  8. maybe when i have enough money to build my own high end PC, i could get into this, but until then, it is just not an option.

    • lol, you can get cheap gaming pc’s that are custom built, look at websites like CCL online or overclockers.co.uk

  9. well, i think my £2000 pc i build my self should just about cope with it lol.

    • Is it possible to spend that much on your own build lol? or does that include monitor, gaming keyboard + mouse etc…

      • nope, thats just the pc. the reaseon it ccost so much is the spec:

        i7 920 DO, rampage III extreme, 2x GTX470s in SLI, 6GB 1600mhz RAM,SSD, watercooled cpu, corsair HX850W. my case cost £170 on its own lol.

      • just curious, you overclocked your i7?

      • yeap. i got it sitting at 3.6ghz at 1.14 volts. cooling it with a HK3 block and a EK 360mm RAD with 6 fans doing push/pull. i had it up to 3.9ghz for a vantage run but i don’t need it any high than 3.6 atm.

  10. I’ll stick to my PS3 thanks. My little laptop just isn’t up to running top spec games.

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