Street Fighter V Beta Shut Down Mere Hours After Launch

[Conrad Zimmerman]

Street Fighter V Beta Shut Down Mere Hours After Launch

Servers taken offline to fix connection issues plaguing beta launch.

Capcom launched the much-anticipated closed beta of Street Fighter V on PlayStation Network yesterday, but the streets are empty of fighting today as connection issues drove the publisher to quickly shut servers down.

Less than one hour after the beta opened, Capcom responded to numerous complaints from participants unable to log in by way of a series of tweets and fixes which continued through the evening, with servers at one point being reset with updates twice an hour [https://twitter.com/StreetFighter/status/624436920299319296]. Their efforts did not solve the problems, however, and the beta has now been taken offline entirely.

Access to the beta, which was scheduled to run for five days, was offered as a pre-order incentive for the PlayStation 4 version of the game. Capcom has said the beta will be extended [https://twitter.com/StreetFighter/status/624421867118460928] to account for the time their customers were unable to access it, though it's unclear at this point if the beta will run at all during the period of time it was intended to.

In a statement provided to Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/street-fighter-v-ps4-beta-taken-offline-immediately-aft-1719957500] by a PR representative, Capcom offered an apology for the issues and stated that the company will, "initiate a period of extended maintenance," meaning that the beta will continue to be offline until they have the problems fixed. No time frame for when that may happen has been given.

Sources: Kotaku [https://twitter.com/StreetFighter]

Permalink

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Oh boy, people are paying the developers for the privelidge to beta test their game? Annnd here is a pretty good reason not to go ahead and do that. If no one pre-ordered then capcom (the lazy...nope...must remain calm) would have to pay for their own beta testers. Although they probably wouldn't, instead just offering free beta testing if they were stuck with no other option.

 

[NiPah]

Oh boy, people are paying the developers for the privelidge to beta test their game? Annnd here is a pretty good reason not to go ahead and do that. If no one pre-ordered then capcom (the lazy...nope...must remain calm) would have to pay for their own,beta testers. Although they probably wouldn't, instead just offering free beta testing if they were stuck with no other option.

It's not really lazy IMO, it's cost effective and provides people who preorder early access and the chance to help the developer. It's a beta after all so risks like these are always possible, but I can't see how this is a bad thing.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Spoiler

I mean really! How do you Fuck up that much, It doesn't even have the excuse that most launches have where there are too many people for the servers to handle, it was a closed beta

I MEAN HOLY FUCK!!

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Oh boy, people are paying the developers for the privelidge to beta test their game? Annnd here is a pretty good reason not to go ahead and do that. If no one pre-ordered then capcom (the lazy...nope...must remain calm) would have to pay for their own beta testers. Although they probably wouldn't, instead just offering free beta testing if they were stuck with no other option.

Paid public betas aren't anything new. The first big one I can think of on consoles was Halo 3 back in 2007, and I will put money down on a PC game doing it earlier. Besides, this isn't swindling. This is what betas are designed to do, stress test the system and mechanics. A lot more people are gonna be playing this when it comes out; better to have the flaws in the system known now so they can try to fix it instead of everyone crashing on launch day.

Also the console version of the beta is free, at least where I am.

 

[Something Amyss]

At least it's a beta? GTA V is still screwing up two years after launch. And it's not like it's some budget title.

 

[fieryshadowcard]

The beta is free. Most people could pre-order, get the beta code, then cancel the pre-order. They must have learned a lot from last night, and I honestly think tying the betas to pre-orders was a smart move on their part. Rather than it being a measure of how many people will buy their game ahead of time, it's actually a bigger measure of how many people are interested which will give them an idea of how strong their servers need to be for the official release.

Not just for Street Fighter, not just for Capcom, this is important for fighting games in general that SFV succeeds, because doing so will put the genre and the FGC in general into a larger spotlight, which is great news for people who love fighters. Then we can finally stop getting armchair warriors who hate fighters and really don't know what they're talking about explaining why fighters aren't popular or are obsolete.

Instead of thinking of this like "hurr durr mah preorder incentive" or "paying to do their work for them," I see this as dodging a major bullet at official release, aka "How not to bring MKX netcode or the USFIV port to the masses."

They're learning, and it's better they get an idea how to avoid this now instead of how to fix this 10 months later (one month after official release).

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

The beta is free. Most people could pre-order, get the beta code, then cancel the pre-order. They must have learned a lot from last night, and I honestly think tying the betas to pre-orders was a smart move on their part. Rather than it being a measure of how many people will buy their game ahead of time, it's actually a bigger measure of how many people are interested which will give them an idea of how strong their servers need to be for the official release.

Not just for Street Fighter, not just for Capcom, this is important for fighting games in general that SFV succeeds, because doing so will put the genre and the FGC in general into a larger spotlight, which is great news for people who love fighters. Then we can finally stop getting armchair warriors who hate fighters and really don't know what they're talking about explaining why fighters aren't popular or are obsolete.

Instead of thinking of this like "hurr durr mah preorder incentive" or "paying to do their work for them," I see this as dodging a major bullet at official release, aka "How not to bring MKX netcode or the USFIV port to the masses."

They're learning, and it's better they get an idea how to avoid this now instead of how to fix this 10 months later (one month after official release).

This.

So much this.

While I would imagine that they could have handled it better, as a Systems and Networking student myself, I understand that this shit can be hard and I'm not even going into stuff like making all the special effects and animations work.
Some people are going to point this out as a bloody mark against the game, but if they get good netcode like Killer Instinct, then it would be a great day for fighting games.
Seriously, the KI netcode is so good most of the people at EVO were online players only prior to that.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Well, just in case everyone forgot what "beta" means, here's a nice reminder: Not ready for official release.

I'm sure at least some of those who bought into the pre-release understand this. They'll be the ones probably not complaining.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Seeing as how this is the entire purpose of the beta, to test online functionality. I don't really consider this a failure at all. Everyone just has no idea what an actual beta is anymore because they've been spoiled by companies calling anything a beta.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Paid public betas aren't anything new. The first big one I can think of on consoles was Halo 3 back in 2007, and I will put money down on a PC game doing it earlier. Besides, this isn't swindling. This is what betas are designed to do, stress test the system and mechanics. A lot more people are gonna be playing this when it comes out; better to have the flaws in the system known now so they can try to fix it instead of everyone crashing on launch day.

Also the console version of the beta is free, at least where I am.

It's not really lazy IMO, it's cost effective and provides people who preorder early access and the chance to help the developer. It's a beta after all so risks like these are always possible, but I can't see how this is a bad thing.

Okay, yeah you guys are correct...confession time, I think a bias against Capcom and a contempt for most non-soul-calibur fighting games distorted my initial thinking there. Won't be so hasty with opinions next time

 

[truckspond]

At least it was openly labelled a beta rather than just released as is.

 

[bluegate]

Mind you, you could also sign up for the Beta for free at the playstation beta program, this is how I got in.
May have been for non-Americans only, though.

 

[CaitSeith]

Well, at least they may be able to find a fix the usual Day One multiplayer problems before launch. Maybe.