Blizzard addresses Diablo 4 beta test complaints: This was not a 'marketing beta'
The Diablo 4(opens in new tab) beta that ran over the weekend was really good—a return to form for Blizzard in the eyes of many fans, myself included. But it was also rough around the edges in a number of notable ways. The reason, Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson told Eurogamer(opens in new tab), is simple: It was a real, actual beta test.
"'Beta' has been a twisted word that has become 'marketing beta', which means demo, and for us this was a true beta because we wanted to be able to test that load and what does it mean to get a lot of players in?" Fergusson said. «And Friday was a little bumpy because of that, but the way that we looked at it is the issues we find now are issues that will be a lot smoother at launch. And so this weekend was to prepare for next weekend, and next weekend prepares for launch.»
It's a fair point, and one that I, as an oldster, have grumbled about occasionally myself. There was a time when being in beta meant a game was close to, but not quite, finished, and the point of a test was to put the boots to it and find out what still needed work. In more recent years, though, it's become more of a marketing tool: A free preview event with what is essentially a finalized product. And so a lot of people just aren't used to seeing games that are in an actual beta state.
The good news is that Fergusson said the beta test accomplished what it was meant to: Blizzard was able to address server stability issues with «six really big hotfixes,» and it's confident that it'll be able to handle the larger rush of players when it goes into full release.
«We had goals around how many people were going to be playing because we really wanted to test the servers, and so we've exceeded the number of players we
Read more on pcgamer.com
