Redwood City (CA) - EA has announced that the Wii version of Medal of Honor : Heroes 2 will have online support for 32 players, 16 more than what is traditionally offered on the Xbox 360.

Heroes 2 is the first 32-player online game, as well as the first online first-person shooter announced for the Wii. Gamepro reports it will also feature open-ended battling, meaning users can jump in and drop out at any point in the middle of a game. Heroes 2 will reportedly bypass the friend code system for most features, allowing players to enter matches without already having an established friend list.

It is a big move not only for the Wii, but for the online FPS genre in general. The only Medal of Honor game on the Xbox 360, Airborne, only supports 12 simultaneous players online. Most Xbox 360 titles carry a maximum of 16-player support. The PS3, meanwhile, has games that can handle up to 40 players at once.

EA is one of the first big supporters of the Wi-Fi capabilities of the Wii. In fact, EA has announced more online-enabled Wii games than Nintendo.

Medal of Honor : Heroes 2 will launch on November 13, a week ahead of the release of the Wii Zapper. A PSP version of the game is also planned for release on the same day, but so far no other console is in the game’s lineup.