Why the Battlefield 3 Beta was bad for EA and DICE

Marketing a game is all that matters to a game publisher as a good advertisement campaign can make a terrible game into the best selling game of the month. Anticipation for a game usually can reach it's peak before release with a multiplayer demo a month or two before it's release.

[Sidology]

Here's the thing:

You asked Twitter.

[DBergmark]

Twitter users are a part of DICE's audience. If I could have recorded audio clips from my Xbox Live chats about Battlefield 3 then implement them into the article, I would have.

[OdinFallen]

You are aware of the fundamental differences between a beta and a demo correct? While it might have been a slight marketing tool, it was never, by any means, the primary purpose of the beta. You used 3 people from twitter...um alright, great support. You could just as easily find people that did like it. Everyone I have asked has loved it despite the hiccups. That still doesn't mean anything. Have to completely disagree with this article.

[Washington-Capitals]

If by the fundamental difference between a "beta" and demo you are reffering to graphics or build quality you are totally wrong. Cause infact there is no differences. Ive seen betas with the final build of the game available like (uncharted 3 and gears 3) ive also seen DEMOS with prealpha builds released like god of war 3 and killzone 2 and ive seen demos with the final build of the game released like MGS4 etc.

Ill put it this way, THE HARDCORE gamer, WHICH IS THE MINORITY OF PEOPLE, know that this was just a BETA AND THE FINAL VERSION WILL BE IMPROVED, BUT the MAJORITY of people dont know that and will base their purchase of this game from the BETA. Whether people liked it or not is up to them, but what i said is true.

[WittyAdrian]

@OdinFallen & Washington-Capitals,
I completely agree with you guys. There are just so much people that are disliking the game because the beta was a bit glitchy, laggy or whatnot... ITS A BETA!! Its purpose is to test the servers, to find out what people dislike about the game. By no means is it a demo. I just think its sad that so many people just cant see that :(.

[FunkMcnasty]

I think I'm going to clarify somethin' for ya D..

you wrote: "EA and DICE, your fanboys will purchase the title and love it, but the average hardcore gamer will purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 over Battlefield 3."

1. you used the word "fanboy" wrong. Someone who simply buys and loves a game is not a "fanboy", and vice versa, buying a game then loving it does not turn you into a fanboy. A Fanboy is someone who preaches endless commitment to product/series/game/system/any thing, and bashes all it's competitors--all the while failing to admit the shortcomings, faults, flaws, and indescrepancies of the thing that they proclaim is the "best." I'd tell you that I plan on buying both MW3 and BF3, but you might not know how to lable me and I wouldn't want to make your head explode trying to think of the term.

2. You call CoD "Hardcore." CoD is an awesome game series, but given it's accessibility and popularity with the pop-culture masses, it is by definition a "casual" game. (which, in my opinion, doesn't take anything away from it at all) BF3 has a much steeper learning curve and requires tactical thinking whether you play it solo or as part of a team, and additionally, is more chalenging overall than CoD, so I would be tempted to say it is a game for the "hardcore" crowd.

Overall, I do agree with the general sentiment of your article. I do feel that the masses who don't understand the true definition and purpose of a beta, will likely take the BF3 beta as a representation of the final product and will likely be turned off from a prospective purchase. I think a solid capaign segment introduced in a demo would've sold the game much better, and the Beta should've been restricted only to those who purchased MoH limited edition, who presumably understood what a beta was.

[Kleptic]

Is the author's primary language not English?...serious question, as a lot of the wording is completely forgivable if thats the case...

but what is he talking about with the 'its the twentieth game to be released in the series this November'?...that has me lost...there haven't been 20 BF games, or 20 CoD games...combined...

i'm usually not critical of someone's writing style to any real degree, which is why i'd be surprised if English was his common language...But this article reads like it was translated by Google...

[princejb134]

i loved the beta and its making me want to buy bf3, but i know many others who hated the beta and cancelled their pre order
thats the problem with betas and demos, it gives you a idea of how the game is gonna buy and usually in my experience it makes me not want to buy the game after playing the demo

[DasTier]

I loved it to, but what ive realized is that I don't want the game to sell to all of the Call of Duty Crowd. Getting shot by a guy camping in a corner with an 870mcs as I walk past him isn't fun. and I'm afraid that's all they'd bring to the table. :/

[FunkMcnasty]

@princejb134

"thats the problem with betas and demos, it gives you a idea of how the game is gonna buy and usually in my experience it makes me not want to buy the game after playing the demo"

Yea, but that's a good thing no, especially with the price of games these days? I could've used a demo for "Homefront" and a few other games that I thought I was gonna love!

[princejb134]

@ FunkMcnasty yes its a good thing for us gamers but bad for the developers who need the money to make more games
theres been many games in the past that were overhyped and ones the demo came out we found out how shitty they really was

[WANNAGETHIGH]

The worst Beta i have ever played.

[SITH]

Then you should be actively commenting on bf3 beta forums to fix the issues you have. That is the point of the beta.

[Kushan]

Yeah seriously, I don't think you know what "beta software" really is. It's kind of supposed to be buggy. It's your job to report those bugs.
Fair enough if you hated the gameplay that isn't likely to change much, go ahead and cancel your preorder, but if you cancelled because of bugs or lack of polish, you're a food.

[Impaler]

I have to agree with the guy on this reply about the BETA, my friends and I are loving the BETA, even with its' faults. We know those will not be present in the final retail build of the game and thus, they are forgivable.

Yes the map we got, while fun, is not a BF style map because we can't use the vehicles, but we are still having fun!

Maybe the masses(read: idiots) will judge this game on the BETA and not buy it, that is fine. There are plenty of people who will, like myself, and we will go have fun in our little corner playing the superior FPS MP game this holiday season(our opinion of course).

[Flavor]

So you are hoping & wishing that what you SEE is not going to be what you GET?

Shooting some hopium?

You can't eat faith. I'm still on for this game, not throwing a fit and canceling my preorder, but what scares me is that it is going to be an embarrassment and the end of the BF franchise as a major contender - because the launch is going to be a bug ridden mess.

THAT is what true fans should be worried about, that this rushed, buggy, 'just wait for the patch' launch will kill any chance DICE has of competing with CoD and ending its reign of terror.

[Impaler]

You could say that. I like to think that with my previous experiences in BETAs of the past that DICE will no doubt deliver(honestly they have not let me down in the past with BF games, except maybe 2142, just really didn't grab my attention(although Mechs effing rule!)).

And I have said this to my friends, I refuse to buy COD anymore(I have played Black Ops on a friends PS3 and played Zombies which is the only reason to have it imo, but I purchased MW2 and was EXTREMELY let down), and if BF3 flops hard in my eyes, not sales, and DICE does not deliver the sequel to BF2 that we have all been wanting, I will be very saddened and just have to wait and see when the next great FPS game will come.

Probably wouldn't buy another BF game after this one if this one bombs to be honest.

Now that I think about it, I have a lot riding on BF3, I hate COD, tired of Halo, tired of Gears(although not an FPS). If this fails, I don't know what I will play except Counter Strike: GO when it releases, but I would play that on the PC anyways so don't slack off DICE!

[bunfighterii]

@ Sidology:

You couldn't be more correct.

[Maddens Raiders]

and won't be getting this game 1st day BUT, it has nothing to do w/ this poorly written article, the grammatical errors in it or that of his/Dice's Twitter followers.

How can the author(s) expect me to take them seriously, when they themselves, don't care enough to properly type words and make sense with what they're exclaiming?

Again, my decision was made before this crap article.

[Hufandpuf]

the PUBLIC beta was a bad move, but the beta wasn't bad. I would have preferred a closed beta, but the cat was already out of the bag and the beta was delayed so close to release (which is why it's so buggy).

[DBergmark]

Very true! Most people don't understand that though so some people will think this is how the game is going to be. *THE POINT OF THE ARTICLE*

(I say that because someone thought I was flame-baiting)

[StanLee]

Hasn't there been enough of these articles though?

[legreffer]

Completely agree with you (and Hufandpuf).

We're not saying that the game will be bad, we know it's a beta and that the retail version will be awesome, the problem is EA and Dice missed an opportunity to steal some non battlefield core gamers.

So what we're saying is it was a bad marketing move to made it open to everyone.

[Kleptic]

I agree with all of you, and there have been plenty of these articles...

but just like the other articles, i agree with what the author is saying overall...

the mistake wasn't having a beta...it was a combination of having a 100% open to anyone public beta, assuming the gaming community (primarily a huge group of CoD fans that EA/DICE are trying to capture) would understand what exactly a beta test is, and having dodgy marketing surrounding the beta to make it seem more like a close to release version of the game...

not to mention including a map with a lack of features of which are very important to the BF experience...which mislead newer people to the franchise...

EA/DICE could have avoided this entirely by having a huge 10 second disclaimer or something when you boot the beta stating how old the build is (if in fact that is completely true...at first it was '3 weeks old'...now EA seems to be saying its more like 4 months...something's up with that)...and that a large portion of the bugs we would experience in the beta have already been addressed...

I think sarcasticgamer's article pointed it out a little better than this one...the beta for BF3 has been bad for the marketing of the game...but not necessarily the game itself, as we don't know just how polished and fixed the final release will be...and that is what is on the line now...if it still releases with the problems occurring currently in the beta, the beta itself was a disaster too...

[jairusmonillas]

Oh, so you people are saying customers can't preview what they'll be buying? We have to right to ask for a Beta cause we will be paying the game. I don't know why you people thinks it's ok to fool people just to get more sales. o_O

[DA_SHREDDER]

yah , they should do what most publishers do. Dupe people into buying a unfinished game and patching it to work after release date. LOL! I'm glad they opened the beta a month before release. I don't care if it's not final code, it showed me that they had alot to improve, and now I won't be mad at them for enticing me to buy a game that still needs alot of tweaking.

[nolifeking]

No, you have the right to ask for a DEMO. If you feel so inclined to ask for a beta your asking for any problem that comes with a beta. Ignorance is never a proper defense so going in thinking that a beta is the demo is no one's fault but your own.

[MrSent]

That would be a demo, not a beta

[Kleptic]

No one can argue effectively in either direction with this whole beta vs. demo thing...

pretty much anyone on this site should know by now what a true 'beta test' is, and what a 'demo' is...BF3's is definitely a 'beta test', but it was misleading in its presentation, release time, and EA's feedback about it before it went live...

BC2 had a 'multiplayer demo' released about the same time before BC2 released as this beta has for BF3...roughly a month before...it was called a demo...was available to everyone...and it was literally the final build of the game...not to mention being from the same publisher and development team...

Many assumed this was the same thing, just with an incentive to leave more feedback for final release, hence the term beta attached to it...but it definitely appears to be a very dated build, with way more problems present than that of BC2's demo...

A true beta test is rarely opened to the entire public with no strings attached...Sony always runs theirs through PS plus now, at least first before a very short window of allowing everyone to play...and they usually have all kinds of agreements present where it can't be shown, previewed, etc...MS usually attaches them to the purchase of another game, or buys up rights to the beta test so its only available on XBL...either way, it results in limited players, and limited coverage of the testing build of any one game...

EA came out with this beta and said 'put videos up on youtube, make fan trailers, whatever you want'...which is very surprising given that all that has been created was a bunch of 'instant death' montages that show how broken some of the game code is...

i don't blame anyone for thinking this was a demo and not a beta, despite it always being called a beta...its a weird one for sure...and EA didn't seem to mind the game being shown off to absolutely everyone in such a poor state...

[liquidus118]

It got people to sign up for Origin in their millions. That alone makes it a huge success irrelevant of Battlefield 3's performance.

[DBergmark]

Huge success? I bet less than a quarter of BF3's first month sales will be from the PC, let alone from a download service.

[Kleptic]

yeah Origin has its own problems that run just as deep as the beta build of BF3...friends links not working correctly for thousands of users...the browser based squad thing is trash right now...

and thats before you touch on the fact that nearly everyone is screaming how origin forced them to make a duplicate account because it wouldn't link other services properly...i'm kleptic1 on origin haha...I made kleptic as an EA account years ago, transferred it to Origin...but then it wouldn't link properly with my PSN account...so I had to make a new one?...hopefully this too gets sorted out before the game's release...

[SJPFTW]

good move. all the COD noobs are now cancelling their pre-orders

[blink3020]

right, that's why COD will still outsell BF3 by hundreds of thousands if not millions.

[vyke3]

Too bad nobody here cares because none of us have shares in either EA or Activision.

[SJPFTW]

i meant cancelling their BF3 preorders scrub.

[Philoctetes]

I put over 200 hours into BC2, and I also decided not to preorder BF3 based on the crappiness of the beta. So they're not just losing sales from COD noobs. They also cost themselves sales from people who were planning on buying their game all along, but got un-sold when they saw the mess that the developer was serving up.

[StarWolf]

the game was supposed to be an 11/10 GOTY best FPS ever.......then the beta. People can say they like the beta all they want but lets be honest of the hype train crashing and burning. Its decent but not GOTY material, not even nominee. People will now cancel their pre-orders because a beta is a demo for most . Most betas are demos and maybe this one ISNT but thats what people will think.

[Szarky]

"Its decent but not GOTY material, not even nominee."

Come on man, it's not even out yet! I know the beta sucked but it's not finsished/released yet!!

[Szarky]

I think if the reviews for the game are very solid from a lot of the big sites everyone will forgot how "meh" the beta was... but that reviews have to be good or else you'll be reading something along the lines of... "the beta should have been a good indicator that the game still needed time and here we are with the final build which even with a day 1 patch needs work..."

I pre-ordered and even though the beta disappointed me I have faith (and patience) with DICE.

[SCW1982]

Aside from the beginning mcom area this beta is freaking awesome. To those people who don't like playing it it's because you don't like an actual multiplayer experience that makes you be patient work as a team and most important think before you react. Cod 4 played like this kind of but none of the other cods do. Go back to your COD and leave the intelligent multiplayer experience to us.

[SCW1982]

Oh and before I forget anyone still thinking this is a demo is retarded.

[Reborn]

Each time I come here, there's an article suggesting the BETA was a bad move.

DICE wanted to test specific things. If they've accomplished that, then how could it be bad? If people can't comprehend the difference between a beta, and demo, then surely you can't blame the publisher/dev?

[Szarky]

Wouldn't you say though that with only 1 month left before the game comes out the line between what you would call a beta vs. demo gets blurry?

I personally hate the whole topic of beta/demo... who cares I say, it's a month away I expect to be "pretty much done."

[rowdyBOY]

this was a beta by name , but because it was a open beta , then

open beta = demo .

to me and everyone who played it .
and by the way this is not battlefield 3 , its more like bad company 3 , so cancel pre-order

[SH0CKW4VE]

Ah sweet sweet irony!

I did say the game was being massively overhyped but NO! fanboys wouldnt have that because of the pretty trailers and thus I lost all these lame democratic things called "bubbles" because i bad mouthed the "pretty game."

Now all the people who disagreed with me are now agreeing with the very points I made dating back to march. It was overhyped and your nothing but an idiot if you fell for EAs big hype train when really you were hopping on the "casual shooter express."

And even more ironically I quite like the game because I set shit standards for it and it went from shit to a great game once I flew the jets on caspian border.

Excuse me while I smugly drink this coffee :)

[FrigidDARKNESS]

i om;u played the beta for 30 minutes since it launched on the ps3...decided the beta is unplayable and garbage.
Bad move by Ea and Dice to put out such rubbish and the game just isn't worth buying.

[Gamer-Z]

I'm saying this right now BF3 is not the so called COD killer that EA would would have you believe. The game is so different from COD its like night and day. Anyways my point is that i don't think it was the glitches that were in the beta that turned people off from the game but rather it was the fact that EA and Dice have hyped this game sooo much that there was no way it could have lived up to expectations. the game is what it is Battlefield and your either a fan of the game or your not. Personally im loving it and im a COD player :P

[veChuy]

Most of the people are dumb they dont even know what Beta means. I remember Bad Company 2 Beta was horrible alots of bugs and glitches, Then with few patches in the final release become an amazing game. I have played all Dice games none of them have disappointed me and Im sure Battlefield 3 Will be the best in the series. I think most of people that are crying are Cod Fanboys they know that Cod cant match Btf.

[gcolley]

both BFBC1 & 2 were very bad at launch but within a month or so they will have ironed out most of the complaints. definitely worth the wait but unfortunately kids today want everything now and will drop this game fast. personally i think this is a good thing, they can all go back to cod.

[KaBaW]

I don't really think that move was bad; of course you're gonna have mixed responses, though.
Just like any 'demo,' people are going to either like it or they are going to dislike it.

As for me, I love the beta, and I can't wait for the final version of the game..

[gcolley]

more like bad for exposing shoddy journalists

[eak3]

At this point if EA and DICE were smart. They would, if it's even possible at this late of date, release a polished version of the game offering a different map or two for people to play.

[artdafoo]

I'll take a free bug filled beta ( BF3 ) instead of paying $60 for a bug filled game
( COD Wack Ops ) But I'm weird.

[DigitalxPiracy]

Since when is a BETA a bad idea? People need to grow up, stop complaining, and understand that what they are playing will not be the best representation of the final product. The kids who are whining are either: a) BF2 fanboys who want this to be BF2.5 or b) COD retards who don't know how to PTFO or manage the recoil in the game.

[MrSent]

holy stupid article. The guy got 3 - THREE responses. lolz. GJ with a BIAS audience.

look at one of the responses:
"nope the game is lame after I played the bata that made my mind and that's no game for me.."

HAHAHAHAHAHA. If these type of people are not going to get the game, that's good news for humanity. When you download the game it says "Beta" If that is too much to comprehend for people, I really don't mind if I never play with them. These are the same people that run in the opposite direction when they spawn. Derp derp.

[nnotdead]

only reason i see people giving for why they dislike the game is the glitches and bugs. i haven't experienced that on the PC, so i think it has gone well. i like the game, but would have liked to play a vehicle filled map, so i could really get the BF experience. right now it is COD with better gunplay. which is a good thing, but i do feel like i will have the same problems with BF3 that i had with Bad Company 2.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I hate to say it but I tend to agree with this article in that the BF3 beta has not been a good call. Should have kept it a closed beta and stress tested with fewer servers, etc...

Here is why I say that. By making it a public beta anyone and everyone can download the beta... given the game is less than a month away this beta is going to be the final impression people get prior to its release. This beta really is acting like a demo... demo's should always be a good polished representation of a game. We know its a beta, but Joe Public won't grasp that. Joe Public will ignore the words beta and download this game just like they do any other free demo.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Yeah from a beta point of view fine, whatever its bad, but it says nothin to the finalized product. But he is right the average hardcore FPS fan will be turned off by the Beta and buy MW3 . That shows the masses aren't that smart.

"nope the game is lame after I played the Bata."

.............see what I mean.

[Basjohn]

Betas aren't demos. I wish the modern gamer would understand this. Betas are MEANT to be buggy, laggy and full of problems. I blame jackass publishers who give away beta keys with purchases though, long gone are the days where you actually had to have a good history of beta testing (which was the case when I was young and supporting quite a few beta titles) to be accepted.

I even seen players "lol" at the thought of reporting problems to the team.....not realizing that's the entire point.......

[Moragami]

Should have been an closed beta, giving access only to those who answer the following question correctly.

What is a beta?

A) A free demo of the finished game
B) A marketing tool
C) A unpolished early build of a game, released by developers to evaluate certain aspects and catch bugs and errors in the programming.
D) Free license to rage about an unreleased game, make tons of incorrect assumptions and basically make a huge D-bag out of myself.

Many selected "D".

[MrSent]

hahhah!

[Moragami]

A SELECTION OF CHANGES FROM OPEN BETA TO FINAL, PART 1

(Not a complete list – for up to date news, visit the News section in Battlelog)

* Fixed occasional client crash when reviving.
* Fixed killcam showing glitched area under map if your killer is dead.
* Issue with spawning on dead squad mates fixed.
* Fixed a bug where shooting at a moving enemy could cause more than the intended amount of damage.
* Crosshairs for shotguns have been replaced with a new, thinner, art.
* A subtle low health screen effect has been added.
* Tweaked scores of Medals and Service Stars.
* Tweaked the Rank progression.
* Pushing prone on console will not play the animation twice.
* Fixed loss of Squad Leader after EOR at some times.
* Framerate stability fixes.
* The 3D spotting icons has been tweaked to better match the target’s visibility. Icons will show frequently less on mostly obscured targets.
* Fixed issue with crosshair disappearing after round transition.
* Fixed issue with crosshair disappearing after trying to deploy while the countdown timer still active.
* Squad list now shows specializations chosen, VOIP activity and dead squad mates.
* Non working options in squad menu fixed: "Private" flag and "Switch Teams".

[maxmill]

the problem is the gameplay, they acted like it was so original and hardcore when its just BF3 (consoles)

Though the pc is boss, id rather stick with bf2

waiting for someone to say ima troll x.x

[leemo19]

I think people were mainly turned off was the bugs/glitches and the fact that so many casual players don't know that's what happens in beta's. Dice could of released a more up to date code for the beta, but it is what is a beta. People cancelling their pre-order over this beta, is the stupid thing ever. If was a demo i can understand that, due to a demo a lot more closer to what the final product is, but it is a beta.

[thespaz]

Regardless of what anyone says, if a beta is open to the public, people say to themselves "Awesome! Here's my chance to play the game and see if I like it enough to buy it when it comes out!".

Even though I know darn well what a beta is used for, I gathered enough information from the beta to know that I'm not going to like the final product because I doubt the gameplay is going to change very much from beta to final. Also, I can't imagine the graphics are going to change drastically from the beta to the final version.

Whatever.

[JoePrime]

This "article" is a joke. You use 3 tweets to back up your claim, yet no real facts or any useful info at all. It's not even an opinion piece, as it's titled like an informative article, but upon reading this drivvle I find nothing informative. Poor form, bad writer, I'll be sure to avoid this website in the future.

[IaussieGamer]

Someone should do a article on why 99% of these shitty articles are bad for gaming.

[Sanhlami]

I think the idea for the beta is good, but the choice of maps and build of this beta was a poor choice. There are SOOO many bugs and glitches that it gets in the way. If EA is going to put a beta out, they should at least get the most bug-free map.

[likewhoaaa]

I feel that everybody who complains about the beta have forgotten the other BF beta's. BF1942's demo/beta was just as bad, bf2 had some glitches, i heard the BC2 Beta was worse than the BF3 beta. It's a beta, it's ment to get the bug's out and test their back end servers. The fact that everybody is judging this game on how a beta is show's how ignorant people really are.

Dice even stated that the beta had code that was over a month old than when it was released. Because of everything they had to do to get it past microsoft they couldn't get it through the validation process faster. The beta was great, i know the bugs are not going to be there, or if they are they will be minimal ones that will get ironed out post launch. I have bought every battlefield game to date, and i know i was impressed with the depth of the beta.