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Did Fans Overreact to the Street Fighter V Beta-Blunder?

Did Fans Overreact to the Street Fighter V Beta-Blunder?

The Street Fighter V beta started on July 23, and then nearly immediately stopped again. The internet wept, as tons of fighting fans (probably) cleared their schedules to play, only to find problems so bad that Capcom had to temporarily shut the whole thing down. Servers were turned off and people were left to wait, wondering when their time to test would come again. My question is, did you really think something like this wouldn’t happen?

You have to understand, this was a Street Fighter V beta test. It isn’t a demo. It’s something Capcom is conducting to find problems. It wants to test the servers. Feedback is invaluable at this stage. The game is still in development, after all. It isn’t going to be perfect. And we all know how difficult online environments can be for fighters, even after they’ve shipped.

Sure, it’s something of a “reward.” People received access to the Street Fighter V for pre-ordering the game from various retailers. But that doesn’t mean this is something people should consider pristine. It just means you committed to a purchase early for the honor of being a guinea pig.

This is also the first beta test of three. Remember, the second is happening in Fall 2015, and a third will follow sometime after. The initial Street Fighter V beta was bound to have problems. If you wanted to test it under more ideal conditions, it would have been better to wait for one of the later tests.

Besides, it isn’t like such a collossal collapse was such a bad thing. It actually works out well. Since this did happen during the first Street Fighter V beta, it means we might not see server problems when the game launches. A test like this is making the final product stronger, because Capcom is seeing inherent weaknesses it didn’t catch on its own firsthand. The subsequent beta tests may not have any of these issues at all, because this experience will help Capcom clear the flaws out.

Did Fans Overreact to the Street Fighter V Beta-Blunder?

It also isn’t taking play time away from us. Capcom had already stated that it would extending the Street Fighter V beta. It won’t end on July 28, as previously announced. The company is taking the unpleasantness into account, and it looks like we’ll still have our full five days.

Was the Street Fighter V beta problem annoying? Yes. Was it the end of the world? No. It just means our plans for the weekend had to be rearranged. We still have our time in the ring this week, helped Capcom get some great data, and hopefully know our discomfort and time made a better final product.

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