Brink Dev Explains Lack Of Open Beta

Splash Damage creative director Richard Ham has talked about the importance of beta-testing - and why you won't be playing a Brink beta

[Legionaire2005]

Shoot Crysis 2 developers was not afraid to open its beta to the public. As a result they had mix reviews about the beta, which isn't the finally game like every developer shows in their games before people play it. Those gamers who think the beta is like the finally project are ignorant, and don't know nothing about gaming. The purpose of a beta is to give feedback to the developers on what needs to be improved.

[MAJ0R]

well hopefully they will have a demo then

[bageara]

I enjoyed the game a lot

[Calm Down Sunshine]

Should've just stayed silent then released a demo.

Going out of your way to tell people they're not getting something isn't going to do them any favours.

"At the same time, with some betas being used purely as marketing tools, some players treat a beta the way they would a demo, and they expect everything to be fully working and polished."

Whilst this is true, it's not really the fault of the developers, and more the fault of the dense-folk taking part.

[2fk]

not a really smart move....beta's are meant to help the developers and i know there's a lot of ppl that dont report bugs and just complain about beta's....but also it lets them try it out to see if it's worth buying....without even a demo this game wont see gr8 sells even though this game looks amazing though...u kinda need hype to sell

[KozmoOchez]

well this game isnt even coming until May, so how do we know they wont start hyping it later? Plus I believe Borderlands didn't have a demo and it did really well, nor did it have a ton of hype, just a few commercials and journalist previews about a month before release is all they needed.

[Mmmkay]

borderlands was £17.99 at day one...

[KozmoOchez]

Pretty sure I paid $60 for Borderlands on day 1.

[Clarence]

I think a majority of games need to have a beta. Feedback from the public can help a game.

[roflcopters]

most games do have beta it's just done internally. you know, QA testers paid to do this very job.

its only this generation that publishers have been scamming the public into glorified demos. even worse is PSN+ and their lame subscription fee to test betas. it has gone from people getting paid to test games to people paying to test betas.

if you not submitting bug reports your just playing a demo.

[dead_eye]

Yeah cos beta's are the only thing you get with psn plus. I'm playing stacked at the moment.

Plus if one of the selling points of psn plus is to get in to beta don't you think the people buying it know what and why a beta is for.

[Clarence]

Yeah you pay for every demo you play on xbox live. On the other hand I don't have a psn+ account and ive been in the bdbc2, kz3, resistance 2, lbp betas all for free

[KozmoOchez]

You don't need xbox live for all demos, so to say that people on xbl pay for demos is incorrect. I haven't paid for xbl a day in my life and I've downloaded demos with my silver account.

[blackpanther25]

@Roflcopters

people submit bug reports through the private beta forums (it may not professional but the DEVs listen and reply) even DC universe online had a lot stuff fixed (connection issues,balancing,Raids,skill, and more) through the playstation plus open beta.

I do agree that some open betas are just advertising like the Warhammer and Aion open betas. I can't recall off my head any console open betas that were total bullcrap

[ps3alldayeveryday]

Well, I just hope the game doesn't run into any MAJOR problems on release. Can't wait to play it!