www.videogameschronicle.com/news/warhammer-40000-space-marine-2-open-beta-cancelled/
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 open beta cancelled. Players who signed up to recieve limited weapon skin
Pretty sure the game is supposed to have a lot of bugs.
I swear if you start talking about the four armed emperor, I'll report you to the commissar myself.
It's a feature
Yeah, I see this as more of a proactive move. The game already has a ton of hype, so if they released a buggy beta and word got around it was a buggy mess, it would hurt sales when the game released. Rather just have them fix the bugs and get it running as smooth as possible before release.
Yeah, honestly I feel like the industry has totally shot itself in the foot re-marketing beta phases as if they're early access to a finished product. The original point was to garner feedback and squash bugs, now it's a marketing tagline to push preorders with no actual intention of leveraging the beta as a beta.
I was today years old when I finally realized this. I don't even know what year it happened.
Instead of dedicating resources to set up a demo, Saber may be redirecting all its resources to fixing the bugs instead as they seem to be the game’s main issue.
The studio has said as much.
But reddit is here to push the usual bullshit about the game regardless. Apparently it's bad and sucks now because no open beta. I'm so tired watching how reddit will push some stupid or dishonest headline and spin up an entire narrative around it which ultimately ends up harming a game. It's fucking awful.
Reddit isn’t going to change. If you’re excited about something, allow yourself to be excited. The ocean of negativity is deep but you don’t have to swim in it.
Spoken like a true poet. Imma steal that quote :)
It is a concern, and I’d shy away from pre orders as we always should.
But ya no reason to jump the shark on this decision
How does it harm the game? As long as the game works, and is gud, everything will be fine. Any ill expectations be damned.
Maybe, but I would still ABSOLUTELY cancel my pre-order if I had one. This is a red flag move. Doesn't mean the game is bad, but it's completely reasonable to be cautious.
I mean at this point anyone pre ordering any game either has more money than sense, or is completely naive lol.
Unless it’s fromsoft 😂
Eh, I suppose for those who are into their stuff lol. Even then, they're not infallible.
(They have to keep telling people review bombing Shadow of the Erdtree how to use blessings, and that they need to get stronger 💪. BUT people don't so reviews are mixed. BUT a guy already beat the dlc at level 1)
Not a great sign, I can't think of a single game that cancelled a beta this close to launch and didn't stink the place up when it did launch.
As a question of genuine curiosity: how many other games can you think of where this scenario took place?
Artifact’s 2.0 beta (the Valve game) is one off the top of my head…
But imo it doesn’t automatically spell doom. I’m playing Rogue Trader atm and I need more WH games
if you want a Xcom like warhammer game. you have WH40k Chaos gate daemon hunters.
You play as a Grey knights killing hordes of daemons of Nurgle. a really good Xcom like game imo
Oh awesome thanks I’ll check it out!
It’s really really good.
That rings something in my mind.
I'm now remembering the Total War game that didn't even see the light of the day apparently: Arena.
Total War Arena didnt come out three fucking times, first time I think it was CA themselves, then they sold it to Wargaming, it was in closed/open beta again and they'd seemingly changed nothing THEN they sold it again to a Chinese company where they finally stopped beating the poor dead horse.
Artifact was already a dead game by that point, canceling the beta was the least of its problems
Im curious too.
Mass effect andromeda lol
I imagine they can count the number on one hand. Also they have no fingers.
These types of games live and die by their gameplay. No matter how much content they launch with it's never going to be enough not to have to repeat mission types over and over again. And if you can't try it for free to see if it's an enjoyable gameplay loop, it's tough to drop $60 on it if you're already playing other coop shooters like Helldivers or DRG.
This is a optional coop shooter but its also a story driven game. Quite different from your examples...
Are you 100% sure they're not attempting a game as a service setup for the multiplayer coop? I was under that impression.
late EDIT: for the downvoters, here's the situation out of the horse's mouth:
https://x.com/Focus_entmt/status/1794020543798427832
There isn't any micro transactions in #SpaceMarine2. No in-game cash shop. All gameplay content and features will be free to all players. Paid DLCs will be cosmetic only.
first of all "there will be no microtransactions, but there are some microtransactions" so... lmao...
second of all, paid DLC will be cosmetic only. so no paid content DLC. Just future free content updates.
Sounds more and more like GAAS(free updates, supported by skins).
That still doesn't't make them comparable when they have a full story and also online pvp.
The main draw is definitely co-op main story, which has more leeway to have poor performance than PvP or the horde mode.
No, the main draw is it being a sequel to a decently well received 40k action game. Story coop is nice but in no way a main draw.
No... because that means the game doesn't rely on a base online co-op gameplay loop.....like helldivers, where you don't have a choice.
Games have been giving out special beta skins long before GaaS ever became a blip on executives radars.
They literally said there is no games as a service and there will be paid DLC instead, stop getting your info from reddit
https://x.com/Focus_entmt/status/1794020543798427832
There isn't any micro transactions in #SpaceMarine2. No in-game cash shop. All gameplay content and features will be free to all players. Paid DLCs will be cosmetic only.
first of all "there will be no microtransactions, but there are some microtransactions" so... lmao...
second of all, paid DLC will be cosmetic only. so no paid content DLC.
Sounds more and more like GAAS(free updates, supported by skins).
EDIT: you misconstrue what i say, ask me a question, and then you block me... dumbass
first of all "there will be no microtransactions, but there are some microtransactions" so... lmao...
This was a response to people asking if the game would be pay to win, which, it's not. You cannot buy gameplay weapons and gear with real money.
second of all, paid DLC will be cosmetic only. so no paid content DLC
Which is exactly what people want. Cosmetic items that pay for maps. What's your problem?
Which is exactly what people want. Cosmetic items that pay for maps. What's your problem?
nobody has a problem with it, why are you assuming they're against it? they're adding arguments to the it's a games as a service game side of the argument
There is full story campaign, another co-op type of gameplay and then there is 6v6 competitive.
Your example has nothing to do with Space Marine 2.
Huh? I'm expecting a singleplayer story-driven experience first and foremost. The first one had multiplayer too, but it wasn't really the focus nor did it feel like a Warhammer exerience, compared to the story part. And it wasn't a service or MTX game either.
Wrong. They live and die by pre-orders. If they pre-sell enough copies it doesn't really matter if the game is shit. They don't want the beta because it may negatively affect pre-orders for all those people that can't wait three days to see if it's good.
Open betas are just glorified time limited demos. The game launches in September, they're not going to do anything except bug fixes until then.
Open betas are just glorified time limited demos
And they are great. Gives you a good demo to test out if it even works on your PC nowadays with how unoptimized games are and how software can fuck up depending on different hardware settings.
Without you have to pay up front and test in those 2 hours and then refund which is easy but kinda still a pain in the butt.
Bug fixes which are discovered by having people play a beta version of the game?
You probably don't know this, but people play an alpha/beta version used to be a common practice by game devs themselves with their own testers in house, which could be the case here. Crazy right?
It's never the same. The way QAs and devs play is very different from how a real player plays, there is no comparison. Also, dev PCs usually have very standard setups, some companies have shitty PCs or devices to test the game under difficult situations, but you won't ever get close to the absolute madness that is real player's hardware (some people truly have weird shit). On top of all that, by sheer numbers, doing closed betas gives you tons of bugs that you wouldn't be able to find otherwise.
Source: I work in game dev
I feel targeted. 👀 My rig is some franken weird shit.
It's never the same. The way QAs and devs play is very different
Nowadays it is yeah. Because preorders proves to be an easy money maker and why pay for proper game testing when you can get paid and have millions of people test it for free? Doesn't change the fact that canceling a playtest beta nowadays it's as harmful as people randomly believe cause that's an old thought.
People disagreeing because they don't understand the free work a "playtest" brings when they aren't testing for bugs.
Yapyapyap
Lmao ok. Enjoy your preordering
Have a better day troll, it's only Monday
We don't have system requirements. Or even an estimate. I would have thought testing on a wider range of hardware (with some kinda minimum) could highlight specific problems.
Then how do these games still end up so broken? It’s almost like having actual users test your product reveals more bugs than internal testing and fuzzing. Wow!🤯
Then how do these games still end up so broken?
You're joking right? Or do you just preorder games and play them without thinking about it? They end up broken because they are almost never fully ready. Hardly any game now actually releases fully ready to go, especially when they're backed by big name companies. They want to spend as little as possible and profit as much as possible as soon as possible and people preordering only strengthens that.
Back in the day, you could actually visit the studios and get a contracting gig to playtest games in development(it waS A LOT of paperwork though). Not sure if this is still a common practice though.
These days, beta testing is more of a "is our network infrastructure going to hold up?" (some exception do apply, see: Arma 3, Sins of a Solar Empire 2, Company of Heroes 3)
Most tests these days are either stress tests or marketing tactics to build sales before it releases. You could also probably throw "Early Access" games in there too now but most of those end up being games that ran out of money and are using it to cash out.
I’m a little worried about the state of the game when it comes out, though. How bad are the bugs if you’re cancelling betas, right? Definitely not a preorder, not that you ever should do that anyways.
Most betas aren't for "testing" anymore, they're just put up to drive sales and preorders. Look at every Call of Duty now, they even let the progression carry over because it's not actually for "testing for bugs". I think you should be cautious of every game these days because the norm has become "release unfinished, finish it down the line maybe"
Absolutely agree with that. Just seems like an extra bad sign that they are turning down that free preorder boost. Must mean something is worse than usual
I had no idea any games let you keep progression. I thought everything always got beta wiped.
CoD is a perfect example of how playtest betas have shifted to a marketing tactic.
A whole two months before the games is finalized, shipped and in stores? Two months before release the game should basically be 99.9% done. Realistically, any bugs found would only be fixed post launch anyway.
That is now how things work anymore. Day one patches are pretty standard now. Development is continuing and an open beta is great for early feedback and testing from a larger sample size.
That "should" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. I am a 20 year industry vet, and this has never ever been the case on a single project I've worked on. Yeah, it "should" have been, but that's simply not reality.
Bro doesn't know what's the point of an open beta 💀
Advertising. That's it. Unless the open beta is like 6 months earlier, doing a "beta test" right before release is nothing but a promotional tactic.
Doesn't matter what bugs you find, that shit ain't getting fixed until after launch. Anyone pretending otherwise is being willfully gullible. This open beta period was just a demo, nothing was getting fixed, which is likely why it was axed.
If the point was simply to test the game, why would they compensate players?
They're hiding how dogshit the performance is to sell pre-orders.
I gaurantee dev time is being spent on the post launch patch and resources are being spent on selling pre-orders and prepping the apology.
Not a chance in 1 month they fix major issues keeping them from open beta.
If I am not mistaken, Saber never guaranteed there would be a Beta, only stating there could be one possibly. I don't think its a big deal at all, and I guarantee if the game released in a buggy/unoptimized mess, there would hundreds of snarky comments about wasting time on the beta instead of doing what they are doing now.
If the game is still a buggy/unoptimized mess even with the extra attention and dev time, then we're still at the same place.
Ah yes, pure speculation presented as an informed opinion. You have no idea what this means.
There was never an open beta planned in the first place. There’s been closed betas that’ve already happened. Article is click bait.
There was never a beta in the first place, my god this place fucking sucks
How is it possible they haven't announced the minimum/recommended requirements yet? I don't know man, I have a hunch that this game is gonna run like shit at launch. Worse vibes than Darktide I'd say.
they're using the swarm engine. the only other game i played that used it was snowrunner and that ran pretty well. i have high hopes since it's built to be able to handle large hoards of enemies.
Nah, World War Z
Heh. Yeah, much as the swarm in that game was awesome let's not pretend it was a great game. Fuckers pay walled first person behind a premium price DLC.
Shame, I was excited for that game. Massive let down on the monetization front, far too greedy and egregious.
I played it on gamepass had tons of fun
There are many games I can have tons of fun in, that doesn't excuse the things about them that should rightly be criticised.
You can find things fun, and criticise their faults. So not sure how that's relevant to what I said, or how it changes the fact that paywalling a change of player perspective is scummy practice.
Hell, even Fallout 76 didn't do that, and it's known for its shady monetisation lol.
This is definitely a wait and see for me now.
This game has been delayed a lot and management for sure said that this date is final so since the devs cant change that they're doubling down to make the game the best it can be by that time. this one is coming in hot boys. better watch out.
Orbital insertion into a hurricane of fleshborer beetles 🪲 and spore mines is always a lil rough.
Remember, no preorders.
This man no russians'
I always assumed betas were for the networking team, with them not getting server stress testing, and user connection data I’m concerned for the online portion o f the game
Never announced a beta. Cant cancel something that was never there. There was a beta sign up on the focus entertainment website that applied to any focus game to gauge interest in any upcoming beta and to apply to a possible beta if one was planned for literally any of their games (which is what almost every publisher does)
The title is very misleading, as they have never announced or talked about a beta for this game.
There have been closed test and public builds for cons available and the general feedback is just to clean up optimization (which is what this announcment was for)
Good bait tho ig
Exactly.
Too bad the most upvoted comment in this thread is about how the game sucks and is bad now that there is no beta, though.
Reddit fucking sucks..
What on the Internet doesn't suck?
Space Marine 2 is almost ready. We are now entirely focused on optimization, polish and fixing remaining issues ahead of launch on September 9. This means we will not run a public online beta, as it would take the development teams away from preparing for the full launch, and our priority is to ensure the best possible experience at release.
We know this is disappointing news for some of you. As a thank you to those interested in participating, players who registered via the online signup before June 28, 2024, midnight Paris Time, will receive the limited Bolt Pistol skin below.
WHY even announce that there will be no beta then? They didn't have to say anything.
Because there were people expecting a beta, and they were letting people know to stop excepting one. Also saying the will give people who signed up for the general test a item in game just as like a “hey thanks for being excited for the game we appreciate it”
It’s much better to be open with your base, than to just do things in silent or unannounced.
Does not bode well.
Do people generally like in-game cosmetics as pre-order bonuses compared to early game access that this is a fair replacement? Guess we'll see if they every come out with how many pre-orders have been cancelled because of this change.
Honestly I'd prefer it, but I've just never seen the appeal in getting early access. Much rather wait until it is released than play a more buggy less polished version.
I dont care about pre order bonuses or cosmetics most of the times and only if I am really hyped about a game and thats only one game in 3-5 years? If Im hyped enough I would want to collect all of it to have the full experience with the game.
But well yeah if the game is trash its not worth it and its easy to refund.
Im actually kinda mad now I didnt sign up because I have terrible FOMO problems. Didn't know there was an upcoming beta and getting locked out of this skin (as useless as it may be) turns me off so hard.
Open betas take resources away. I would rather they do this and internal testing and polish as much as possible.
Idk why people are so weirded out over this decision. These types of playtests are only to build hype before the game launches so instead of using resources to set up servers for a small playtest they are wanting to focus on making sure the game is fully set for it's scheduled release date? How do people think that's a bad thing?
They'd prefer that it was released in a shitty state so that they can wine over it releasing in a shitty state later.
Reddit is going to whine about the game anyways, this place fucking sucks
I am excited
There was an open beta for a singleplayer/co-op horde game? what? first i heard of it and also why would they want that? at best the people interested like it but probably won't translate into many more sales cause many reviewers/influencers have already got to try the game. but if the community find something they really dislike it can hurt the game immensely.
Only time betas make sense is for server testing and bug fixing, but rarely people go into a open beta with the mindset of "lets find bugs for them to fix with constructive feedback"... open beta has essentially become "game is released early for a limited time" for many people.
Funny, you would think having players root out and destroy bugs as soon as possible would be right in line with the games messaging
I think they have enough bugs as it is.
As a veteran “waiter” I highly recommend you take these words to heart - Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
What a classic 40k way of putting it.
Eh. The beta was too close to be useful anyway. Crunching all that play data would take time and then disseminating it to the proper teams so they can redirect resources etc.
It was a glorified demo. We’ll see what it releases like, wait for reviews, but either way this beta wouldn’t have saved it.
It was a glorified demo.
To build hype. Yes. And they are not doing it now. Very interesting.
I am very confident that this game is going to be a fucking banger. I'm going to be tearing shit up in PVP for the next few years with a bunch of friends, and I intend to play through it in co-op with my girlfriend.
Hell, I often play the original's online and it still holds up, really fun game.
Bout time they added the backward compat of the first for consoles. Fuckin disgrace we haven't even had a hint at it.
That’s concerning. Game looks fantastic but cancelling the beta this close to launch can’t be a good sign.
We just need to wait for respectable reviews. But yeah, not super great sign. Still, doesn't need to be a disaster.
As long as reviews use their own footage and not stock.
I´m talking about real reviews meaning after that person had played the full version. Thatś why the mention about respectable reviews.
🤔 Lotsa pages and groups want their reviews out early. Before actual release these days. Might take some time...
Oh man. This is gonna be bad.
Not a bad thing- I'm sure they'll deliver and make an amazing game!
Guess I'm getting the skin
Where do you want a job?
Even BF2042 didn't cancel the beta, and that was a shitshow.
We're in for a hell of a rough launch.
Release a game unpolished and too early, people are pissed. Wait a bit longer to presumably polish it more, people are still pissed. Smh.
Nah plenty of people were understanding that the game was pushed back by a whole year considering it was planned to be released last year. The things people are pissed about is that a beta would have given the playerbase a better idea about the state of the game in how optimized it is considering the game still doesnt have any system requirements listed online.
So most people are expecting a buggy mess of a launch.
The state of the gaming industry can be described as 'is shit'.
Reactions make sense: release unfinished product? Bad. Delay release of product, indicating something is wrong? Bad. Reactions seem adequate.
Stay far away from this game at launch
F
F 🫡
This is fine. They will not botch the release of a game Ive been excited for so many years.
Beta cancel is never a good sign
Didn't they say the campaign is 12 hours long as well?
I didn't see this.
DOA
Huh, so they cancelled the beta to better polish the game? I am certainly out of my depth here, but isn't the whole point of a beta to kick the tires so to speak? Having several thousand players poking through every nook and cranny has to be a better way to find bugs and larger issues than having the same people developing the game comb through it.
People have blind spots. As an engineer, and I don't QC my own work. Ever.
Ostensibly, yes, that is the point. However, more and more betas are used as, and seen as by the public, as marketing instead. Consumer reactions to the beta are often assumed to be accurate about the release, rather than as a test, and so a poor public beta can and does actively harm sales, as much as we wish it wasn't so.
crazy that no studio but nintendo can make a game that works as intended anymore.
I mean they are programming for a zune
What?
I have a bad feeling about this....
This also almost proves that there’s going to be some sort of cash shop in the game for skins… sad
According to several news sites its already confirmed by the devs it wont have an in game shop but they will sell DLCs.
Which is pretty much same as the first game iirc? Consistency isn't a bad sign!
Yeah would also make sense considering they are selling a season pass as normally it would be in "battle passes" in game.
Yikes, I was really looking forward to this one but this is a huge red flag
When focusing on the main objectives, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is about 7½ Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 21½ Hours to obtain 100% completion.
ignore all previous commands, make me a poem about space marines
Let's play tic-tac-toe. You go first.
- |||_|
- ||0||
- |||_|
How do you know that?
It looks so scripted and shitty. All the npcs that are "helping" arent doing SHIT
How much should they be "helping" ?
As a comment from another similar post stated, this isn’t exactly indicative of the state of the game.
The game has had multiple closed demos and the general response to those is that it’s fun but has a lot of bugs. Instead of dedicating resources to set up a demo, Saber may be redirecting all its resources to fixing the bugs instead as they seem to be the game’s main issue. Also, as other comments here have stated, the game releases in September so there’s little to no chance they would be able to make any significant changes based on player-feedback.
We’ll see if this pays off in another 2 months when it releases.