Battlefield 1943 should be the best tenner you’ve ever spent on an online game. However many purchasers of yesterday’s XBLA/PSN download have since found their experience blighted by horrible lag – and that’s assuming they were lucky enough to get into a game in the first place.

Yup, it seems that Battlefield 1943 has been a victim of its own success. In short, DICE’s game servers have not been able to keep up with the insane level of demand. How nobody at DICE or Electronic Arts was able to foresee this is way beyond us.

DICE, to its credit, has been quick to act. In a posting on the EA forums DICE producer Gordon Van Dyke acknowledges that server capacity has already been reached and that some gamers have been finding that they are unable to join in the wartime blasting fun unless somebody else leaves – one out, one in, so to speak.

Van Dyke then assures users that new servers are being added, and, in a trio of further updates, details exactly what is being done, where and when. By the time you read this Battlefield 1943’s European server capacity should be almost double what it was at launch. Let’s see if that’s enough to ensure smooth gameplay and access for all.

Meantime, please spare a thought for Van Dyke – he’s only had three hours kip since trying to fix these problems. Aw, poor lad...