Treyarch Warns Against Black Ops 2 Beta Offers

[Andy Chalk]

Treyarch Warns Against Black Ops 2 Beta Offers

Treyarch's design director confirms that Black Ops 2 beta keys are not yet available.

There was a time, many years ago, when "beta testing" meant playing a game in all sorts of repetitive and un-fun ways in an effort to break it, in order to ensure that it wouldn't be broken when it finally went to release. These days, though, it's more often employed as a pre-order incentive, while gamers typically see it as a way to play a new game ahead of everyone else. Offers of beta keys for major upcoming releases tend to get a lot of attention, and there aren't many upcoming releases bigger than Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

But there aren't any beta keys for it yet, either. A quick Google of "black ops 2 beta keys" leads to numerous sites purporting to offer them, but Treyarch Design Director David Vonderhaar confirmed recently that none of them are legit.

"The answer is no," he tweeted [https://twitter.com/MikeGliddon/status/234452409513029632] in response to a question about whether beta codes had been released. "Don't trust that."

Black Ops 2 isn't even in a beta state yet, Vonderhaar revealed in a later tweet [https://twitter.com/DavidVonderhaar/status/235368786612613120]. "The game is at alpha. That means we are just now starting to tune and polish all of the gameplay systems," he wrote. "Way more to come."

Oh well, at least we still have Half-Life 3 at Gamescom, right? Oh [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119051-Half-Life-3-Mistakenly-Appears-on-Gamescom-Listing].

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Black-Ops-II-Pc/dp/B007XVTR12/ref=sr_tr_sr_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344974047&sr=8-1&keywords=Black+Ops+2] comes out on November 13 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC.


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[Korten12]

Wait... Beta key's are not yet avaliable..? Does that mean there will be a Beta!?

 

[Andy Shandy]

Wait... Beta key's are not yet avaliable..? Does that mean there will be a Beta!?

That's what I was thinking! Has there been public betas for other CoDs?

 

[Korten12]

Wait... Beta key's are not yet avaliable..? Does that mean there will be a Beta!?

That's what I was thinking! Has there been public betas for other CoDs?

None that I know of.

 

[LegoDudeGuy]

Wait... Beta key's are not yet avaliable..? Does that mean there will be a Beta!?

That's what I was thinking! Has there been public betas for other CoDs?

None that I know of.

I believe their was a beta for BO and WaW, if memory serves right.

Only Treyarch seems to do open beta's, not Infinity Ward. :/

 

[Blaze016]

I believe their was a beta for BO and WaW, if memory serves right.

Only Treyarch seems to do open beta's, not Infinity Ward. :/

Only WaW had an Open Beta.

 

[Blaze016]

Double Post

 

[Drago-Morph]

The game is three months from release and they just entered alpha? Now I'm no development cycle expert, but that doesn't sound good.

 

[ARCTIC_EAGLE]

I've played the beta and wasn't impressed, its just not up to par, very disappointing

 

[GenGenners]

3 months exactly till release..........but only in........alpha?
......huh? Did I read that right? I did just read that?

 

[Evil Smurf]

3 months exactly till release..........but only in........alpha?
......huh? Did I read that right? I did just read that?

do they make the games that quickly? How?

 

[90sgamer]

Black Ops 2 isn't even in a beta state yet, Vonderhaar revealed in a later tweet. "The game is at alpha. That means we are just now starting to tune and polish all of the gameplay systems," he wrote.

Didn't they tune and polish the gameplay systems when they made Black Ops, modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare, etc...

They must be innovating a new type font for the menu or something.

 

[Beautiful End]

Well, I doubt there would be a beta for Blops2...however, it would make sense for it to be the August or October pre-order incentive they're giving out at GameStop.
Although that would mean they'd be favoring GameStop over other stores so on second thought, I doubt it.

So yeah, I doubt there would be a beta for Blops2. Betas are released with more anticipation before the game is released. Like Little Big Planet Karting. it comes out around the same time as Blops2 and the beta is already out and done with. When you pick up Medal of Honor 2, you'll get the Battlefield 4 beta, and we all know BF4 will probably come out towards end of 2013. It just doesn't make sense.

 

[gardian06]

(all companies cited are examples, and do not reflect affiliation)
what it means is that they are using the real meaning of the term of the industry that you only hear from real development teams, and not the new bastardized meanings that Activision, EA, and other publishers use to make the game sound farther along then it is.

the traditional meaning of the words are:
Alpha: integration of all gameplay features, mechanics, and rule-sets
Beta: release candidate (tuning existing features)
Gold: release to public.

the process goes like this:
I have a game idea
my team, and I start making the game Alpha phase1 (skipping big section of bureaucracy)
we implement a set amount of features, and have the attached mechanics in place
we enter beta phase1 tuning, and tweaking those features, and mechanics.
we want to add more features, and mechanics we go to Alpha phase2.
we finish those, and then enter beta phase2.
rinse, and repeat until all features are in the game.
submit Gold version to publisher/distributor (again skipping big section of bureaucracy)

and even the author of the article is a little wrong when he stated that paid beta testers (here's our game break it) don't exist actually they do. most of those positions for companies like EA, and Valve these positions are in house, and usually under QA (if it has to do with the finished product not being broken these are the ones that are supposed to catch it). while there are companies like Microsoft that farms these tester out to third party companies.

As a small note: most paid beta testers have to sign an NDA (even the in house ones), so even if you could find someone that was a paid beta tester they all they could be able to say is "I test games for a living" (it is nowhere near as fun as it sounds), but many let you say the company name, but not all.

Credentials: game development Bachelors graduate (focus in programming), game tester 3 years (all games tested, and company fall under NDA), QA 2 years-current (game currently under development, and under NDA). I have also been involved in those bureaucracy sections which a lot of people don't quite understand even when they are all in house.