E3 2016

[TX85]

Watching Zelda, really impressed

 

[Havok83]

Can someone explain to me what the point of a limited time demo is? Nioh had one and Doom has one for E3 week. I dont get the purpose behind this. It almost feels like a single player beta in that regard

 

[SpideyVille]

Can someone explain to me what the point of a limited time demo is? Nioh had one and Doom has one for E3 week. I dont get the purpose behind this. It almost feels like a single player beta in that regard

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's like the Timed Trials that Sony sometimes has, where you're playing the actual completed game as opposed to a snippet cut out from that may not have all of the full features.

 

[Havok83]

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's like the Timed Trials that Sony sometimes has, where you're playing the actual completed game as opposed to a snippet cut out from that may not have all of the full features.

Thats different though. Timed Trials are the full retail game, not demos. Those are there to let you try before you buy and they expire after 60 minutes but are always available on the store. As such your save progress carries over and trophies unlock if you purchase. NiOh and Doom are actual demos but only available to download for a week and do not work after that week is up.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Ni-oh was an alpha demo. It was even called Ni-oh Alpha if I recall, so one of its purposes was to get feedback and build hype based on the limited time it was available to the public. Doom, I dunno, though.

 

[Soapy]

Can someone explain to me what the point of a limited time demo is? Nioh had one and Doom has one for E3 week. I dont get the purpose behind this. It almost feels like a single player beta in that regard

That Nioh demo was a beta.

 

[Havok83]

That Nioh demo was a beta.

beta for what? It didnt have online features

ETA: it was a demo. Heres the blog post announcing it: https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2016/04/04/nioh-launching-2016-on-ps4-demo-out-this-month/

Ni-oh was an alpha demo. It was even called Ni-oh Alpha if I recall, so one of its purposes was to get feedback and build hype based on the limited time it was available to the public. Doom, I dunno, though.

yeah I recall it having an alpha in the title but its still odd that it was only up for one week and its not like there were servers to maintain

 

[Soapy]

First off, it did. Second, you don't need online features to have a beta.

 

[Havok83]

First off, it did. Second, you don't need online features to have a beta.

what games dont?

 

[Tron Bonne]

A beta is about testing. It's not specific to an online game.

 

[Havok83]

A beta is about testing. It's not specific to an online game.

betas released to the public are. Can you list examples of non-online games which got betas?

 

[SpideyVille]

I know other developers may be guilty of doing this as well, but this saddens me greatly, considering Ubisoft is my favorite developers. Certainly makes me less excited about what the final product of Wildlands will look like.

 

[Soapy]

betas released to the public are. Can you list examples of non-online games which got betas?

Go on Steam Early Access and you'll probably find hundreds.

 

[Tron Bonne]

betas released to the public are. Can you list examples of non-online games which got betas?

You're confused about what a beta is. Just because a game's beta is not released to the public, doesn't mean it doesn't have a beta. Beta is reference to a stage of development. Yes, multiplayer games tend to have public open betas and single player only games don't, but that doesn't mean offline only games don't have beta stages.

Ni-oh was released, as I said, partially to allow hype from people, but they took specific feedback on how the game played as well as glitches and issues found, etc. It was unorthodox, yes, but it's still a beta in the technical sense. They didn't keep it up, because they will update it based on the feedback they got both from players and themselves testing it.

As far as Doom goes, I don't know, like I said. I don't see why they are keeping that limited.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

I know other developers may be guilty of doing this as well, but this saddens me greatly, considering Ubisoft is my favorite developers. Certainly makes me less excited about what the final product of Wildlands will look like.

Yeah, I still think Ubisoft puts out good games (though sometimes they have a lot of bugs on release), but I really wish they'd be honest about how their games actually look visually, and sometimes even how the gameplay works, some of those downgrades are just depressing, a game should never look better at E3 than it does when it is actually finished and released.

 

[terry78]

What exactly is the reason for a downgrade in a final release? They blew all their **** on the demo? Pulled a Steve Jobs and amped up the power for that showcase even though though they know it's never gonna look like that done?

 

[Soapy]

I assume the point of a limited time demo is that it will draw a larger and more focused amount attention than a normal demo. "Oh ****, it's only out for a week. I better get on that."

 

[Tron Bonne]

What exactly is the reason for a downgrade in a final release? They blew all their **** on the demo?

A lot of early footage is rendered via PC hardware, therefore able to process more. Sometimes, such with many Ubi games, that's all for show. To get them to run on the actual console hardware requires a downgrade. It is, honestly, borderline false advertising, but most early footage will come with some disclaimer that footage may not look like final product, so it's legal to do and all.

 

[Iceman]

A lot of early footage is rendered via PC hardware, therefore able to process more. Sometimes, such with many Ubi games, that's all for show. To get them to run on the actual console hardware requires a downgrade. It is, honestly, borderline false advertising, but most early footage will come with some disclaimer that footage may not look like final product, so it's legal to do and all.

I hate that they can get away with that. The disclaimer should be absolutely unmissable in these cases.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Nioh wasn't even a beta build, it was an Alpha build.

 

[Havok83]

Go on Steam Early Access and you'll probably find hundreds.

Steam Early Access is a full purchase of an incomplete game that devs use to help fund development of their game. Not quite the same thing. Do you know of an actual betas of non-online games?

You're confused about what a beta is. Just because a game's beta is not released to the public, doesn't mean it doesn't have a beta. Beta is reference to a stage of development. Yes, multiplayer games tend to have public open betas and single player only games don't, but that doesn't mean offline only games don't have beta stages.

Ni-oh was released, as I said, partially to allow hype from people, but they took specific feedback on how the game played as well as glitches and issues found, etc. It was unorthodox, yes, but it's still a beta in the technical sense. They didn't keep it up, because they will update it based on the feedback they got both from players and themselves testing it.

As far as Doom goes, I don't know, like I said. I don't see why they are keeping that limited.

And you are confused to what I am talking about. I know companies beta test their games internally. Obviously, they QA before release. Im specifically referring to sending out a beta for the public to test. By and large thats bc of online functionality bc thats not something they cant do accurately do internally bc of geography and numbers. A public beta is the closest thing to testing online features in the real world.

 

[Soapy]

Nioh wasn't even a beta build, it was an Alpha build.

lol, no it wasn't. You have to separate what they title these tests as from the actual terms. If it was an actual alpha build there would barely be any textures on anything and you would have fallen though the floor a hundred times.

 

[Havok83]

lol, no it wasn't. You have to separate what they title these tests as from the actual terms. If it was an actual alpha build there would barely be any textures on anything and you would have fallen though the floor a hundred times.

did you not read the link I posted? It was a playable alpha demo

 

[Tron Bonne]

I guess I am confused about what you're talking about then, because I honestly have no idea what your trying to say at this point.

And Soapy is right. They may have called Ni-oh Aplha, but that wasn't an actual Alpha build. An alpha build is super, super basic.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Steam Early Access is a full purchase of an incomplete game that devs use to help fund development of their game. Not quite the same thing. Do you know of an actual betas of non-online games?


And you are confused to what I am talking about. I know companies beta test their games internally. Obviously, they Q&A before release. Im specifically referring to sending out a beta for the public to test. By and large thats bc of online functionality bc thats not something they can do accurately do internally bc of geography and numbers. A public beta is the closest thing to testing online features in the real world.

Apparently the new Hitman had a beta for the public:

http://in.ign.com/overwatch/85022/feature/5-video-game-betas-to-look-forward-to-in-2016

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/02/24/hitman-on-ps4-ps-plus-exclusive-beta-starts-march-4th/

It is a single player game, so I don't know what online component would be involved.