et1337

Saw this on /r/gamedev... you should at least skip through it briefly, it's definitely worth your time!

Match-making is one of the things that bothers me most about console gaming, and dedicated servers is one of my favorite things about PC gaming. With that in mind, I had an idea to bring dedicated servers (in a way) to consoles, and I was wondering if this had been done before.

The idea is to have a master server where players could create "virtual dedicated servers". Each "server" is a set of configurations like map rotation, weapons, health, etc. The server would have a name that would show up in the global server list. When the first player "connects" to this server, his console is actually loading those configurations and setting itself up as the host. If he disconnected, the game would perform the "migrating host" dance that Call of Duty does.

You could have elevated privileges for admins as well. Because it's on a console, there's very little chance of hacking. Although you wouldn't get the low ping and other technical benefits of dedicated servers, you would still get clan servers, admins and similar "social" benefits.

So my question is, has this been done before? Is it feasible? I think it would be too complex for an indie game, but I'd like to see an AAA title use this system.