The developer of Destruction AllStars on PlayStation 5 released a Reddit post discussing its feature roadmap for Season 1 and beyond. In the post, it revealed that the team will be using bots to fill online matches and counteract ongoing problems with them being under the maximum player count.
Destruction AllStars is a vehicular combat game developed by Lucid Games. The chaotic, destruction derby-inspired game has seen a somewhat rough launch with a mixed critical reception in its immediate post-release window, but Lucid Games is committed to keeping the game interesting and fixing persistent problems.
RELATED: Destruction AllStars Reveals Year 1 Roadmap
Lucid Games' Destruction AllStars roadmap indicates the team has plans to implement bots in online matches. The team also plans to improve the party system, allowing players to queue into both solo and team modes without switching party types. Other future plans include a vague indication of playlist improvements, as well as balancing improvements and bugfixes.
The addition of bots to the game possibly indicates a struggle to maintain its playerbase. If an online game has a strong enough playerbase to consistently fill matches, bots should not be necessary to fill player counts instead. The fact that bots are being added shows that Lucid Games, despite its efforts, is likely having trouble keeping players in the game. Despite this news, the willingness to change the game in such a way proves its ongoing commitment to the remaining playerbase, and this is likely a temporary solution while the team works on adding more content like a photo mode and balancing changes to bring back some of its lost traffic.
The mixed critical reception to Destruction AllStars at launch likely scared away many players, but the large price cut on PS5 earlier this year makes the game more accessible considering the high prices that PS5s are still being sold for. The game does not appear to be a system-seller yet, but with ongoing work to add more content and improve balance, Destruction AllStars has the potential to come back.
PlayStation 5 systems still difficult to find for reasonable prices could be contributing to playerbase problems in Destruction AllStars. The high price of obtaining a PS5 means the system may be outside of the casual audience range that Destruction AllStars is targeting. Releasing the game on PlayStation 4 could bring an entire new audience into the game, but considering how heavily the game is marketed as a PS5 exclusive, a release on last-generation systems is unlikely.
Destruction AllStars is available now exclusively on the PS5.