Yahoo Autos The gaming beta is fighting for its life
Between its recent tests, the developers of Diablo 4 were keen to assure players that they weren't playing a "marketing beta". General manager Rod Fergusson explained how a rocky start would mean a smoother launch, that Blizzard had already used data gathered from the early access to hotfix major problems and solve other issues down the line. For all the struggles that Diablo developers wrestled with over the past few weeks, it looks like the open beta was a true testing ground for the game. Unfortunately, that seems to be an increasingly rare phenomenon.
This week, Warner Bros announced that Multiversus – a game that soft-launched in July 2022, entered its first season in August, and claimed nominations and wins at several prestigious Game of the Year awards shows – has actually been firmly in beta this whole time. In spite of updates, seasons, new characters, and a pretty gruelling battle pass, players were told that "there's still a lot of work to do," and that the game will be pulled from digital stores next week, will be shut down in June, and won't return to a 'live' state until next year.
Ostensibly, Multiversus is shutting down to give Warner Bros a chance to work on its release timeline for things like new characters and maps, as well as improvements to netcode and matchmaking. The quiet part is that Multiversus' player count has fallen off a cliff, dropping 99% between July 2022 and February 2023 on Steam. For a service game intended as a rival to one of the most successful fighting game series of all time, that's a death knell; fewer players means a worse online experience, which is likely to drive even more players away. It's not hard to extrapolate that Warner Bros is hoping a relaunch will give Multiversus the shot in the arm required to resurrect it. But in doing so, it's helping further undermine the already uncertain role that a beta plays in modern game development.
Safe bet-a
DIAB-GO!
10 games like Diablo to play if you're bored of waiting for Diablo 4
