Yep, the closed beta has ended, quite a lot of fun! Also, MS has released some numbers from the beta -
It’s not a colossal figure, not ‘over 9 million’ like Star Wars Battlefront 1’s beta in 2015, but whereas that was open…
…and Star Wars and DICE. Come on.
In the comments:
I hope this translates into more sails.
Perfection.
More importantly, they are comparing an Open Beta with a Closed Beta.
Aye, that was mentioned but perhaps I should have included it in the quote. Either way, it was a stupid point/comparison to make, really.
Some redditors have data mined the last update’s files and found a lot of information, including reference to an open beta. Anyone who didn’t get a shot at the closed beta, keep your eyes peeled -
Yeah, I need to get on board with that to test the cross-play. Was bitten quite badly with Helldivers back when it was PlayStation exclusive.
PC Gamer mistakenly published their preview a day ahead of the embargo lifting. If you don’t mind slight spoilers on content to be added for launch and end goals, you can have a look at the cached version of the article here:
Or wait a little while. I expect a barrage of articles in the coming few days.
In any case, I’m really excited for the emergent gameplay and fun I’ll have with friends and family in that one.
That all sounds delightful.
The Eurogamer article goes more in depth. It does indeed sound delightful, and a boatload of fun too. With snakes on it…
I can’t wait.
Ohhh:
it does not have experience points nor does it have stat-based loot.
This excites me greatly.
Yeah, that is good. Just chasing cosmetic stuff is awesome. This really does just keep sounding better and better.
Just got an email that there will be a scale test this weekend, between 10am GMT Feb 16 to 10am Feb 18. Not sure who it’s open to, but I’d assume if they’re testing ability to scale it’s anyone who played in the closed beta.
Got my kid the preorder for his Xbox. Nice that I can buy it for my xbox account and play it on my PC which is in my game room hooked up to my 55". Had to sell my Xbox but being able to play with him, with me on PC and him on xbox for now is a good deal.
Looks like the scale test this weekend is open to everyone who was able to join the closed beta but additionally if you were not eligible for the beta but are an Xbox Insider you will be able to join.
Also, looks like they’ve released the PC specs:
Since Win10 is still on less than half of gamer’s PCs, it’s weird that they would eliminate so many potential sales from the jump. Microsoft continues to make bizarre decisions like this. I’d buy the damn game on day one if they’d let me.
From Betanews.com 3 months ago:
The latest stats from Steam show Windows 10 shedding a massive 17.38 percentage points, to give it 28.6 percent share. (The 64-bit version accounts for 28.23 percent, and the 32-bit version adds a tiny 0.37 percent).
Meanwhile, Windows 7 has gained a whopping 21.47 percentage points in the same month, climbing to 65.46 percent (63.60 percent for the 64-bit build, and 1.86 percent for the 32-bit edition).
You could be forgiven for thinking that Steam has made a mistake here, or that gamers are turning their backs on Windows 10 in huge numbers, but it seems likely that at least a sizable portion of the change can be attributed to China’s influence.
You may not agree with the decision but I don’t think it’s really all that weird. In fact I’d say it’s very much in character for MS, if you’ll recall they did much the same thing with Halo 2 and Vista.
Anyway I intended to try out the PC version last time around but forgot. Maybe this weekend.
I think it’s because Microsoft doesn’t really give a damn about selling the game, they just want to use it as a vehicle to push Win10. So, that’s decidedly weird if you’re looking at it from a game development and sales point of view because it really hurts sales. But it makes sense if you look at it from the viewpoint of them as an OS vendor desperately trying to kill Win7 and get folks to adopt Win10. As you point out, they’ve done it before.
Ironically, they’d likely have more success with adoption if they’d just fix the stuff in Win10 that Win7 users object to rather than using games like this as bait.
It doesn’t have to be a binary state, you know.
It’s weird that some people think Windows 10 suddenly want from nearly 60% installed base to 30-something. Clearly tens of millions of people didn’t just suddenly stop using Windows 10 in a few months time. Instead, there were tens of millions new people on Windows 7 in China thanks to PUBG.
Sure if it wasn’t locked to Windows 10 it would address a larger market, but Windows 10 is on 600 million PCs now and it runs on a potato so it’s not exactly a small potential install base to start with.
Awesome, thanks for the heads-up. I’m an insider, so I just went and signed up. It says ‘pending’ now. We’ll see.