wes 1,305 Posted October 26, 2016 Thought I would do a brief write-up to help explain why the beta is PC only. Some think it's because we dislike consoles. That couldn't be more untrue. I'm a console gamer myself and I own the company. So it has zero to do with a "PC Master Race" mentality. It's also has nothing to do with the amount of PC vs Console pre-orders. On the contrary, there's been a tremendous amount of console preorders. What it comes down to is time. Let me explain. So the three companies we have to work with to put this game our are Steam, MS and Sony. Each has their own certification process. So what does that mean? After we have a build of the game that's ready for the public, we have to send that code to Steam, MS and Sony. They have their own internal teams that playtest it. Each entity has their own set of rules that their internal team uses during said playtest. Steam's guidelines are pretty straight forward. Their certification process is not hard to pass. Most of the time you pass either on the first try, or second. If the game boots, is playable, supports controllers and you have all your marketing images (the little pictures on the steam page) then you're pretty much good to go. MS and Sony are a completely different beast. Both Sony and MS have different rules for certification in different countries. So it's not just one rule book to follow. You also have to think about consoles and their audience. When you buy a console game, you expect to turn it on and play it. No hoops to jump through. No out-dated drivers to update. You don't think about screen resolution or the near endless configurations that PC players might have setup. It's a box that plugs into your TV and it just works, right? Sure there are still issues with console games needing patches, etc. But the reason why this "just works" is due to their incredibly rigid certification process. And that's not a bad thing. It should be rigid because you just want to plop down on the couch and play something without hassle. Some examples of certification failures might be; "Player boots game and has controller plugged into the second port, and a Rockband/Guitar Hero guitar plugged into the first port. Player should be able to back out of game, back to dashboard using guitar." That's just one example of an edge case that we have to test for. Sound ridiculous? Maybe. But Sony/MS want to account for almost any scenario that a gamer might be in, to assure the player can still perform the basic operations of the console. Next think about all the features the XB1 has now. The ability to hot swap from app to app, while still playing a game. The ability to "minimize" a game, turn off console, come back a few days later and the game should play instantly from where you left off. Etc, etc. Again, this tough certification isn't bad, it's very much needed. The only problem is that it takes the dev team a MASSIVE amount of time to account for this. Most studios, even AAA ones will fail the first 2 or 3 times going through certification. So what happens when you fail? If you're lucky it's a quick fix and you can resubmit and get bumped up to the front of the line so the cert team can retest. Sometimes you might only be 2nd or 3rd in line. It really depends on the time of year and how many games are trying to get certified at that time. Every patch, every DLC pack, all has to go through cert. So you can only imagine how crazy it is at Sony/MS for the cert team. They are going through multiple game certs every month. So the time it takes to fail, resubmit and then hear back from the cert team varies. Sometimes it's as fast as 2 weeks. Other times it can be a month. It depends on the severity of fixes and the workload of the cert team. So we're not leaving console gamers out because we don't like them. It was a decision made sheerly for time. If we did support a console beta, it would push our launch date much, much farther into 2017. We're a small team. Less than 40 total working on this. A game like COD, BF1, etc, has 500+ people. They have the luxury of a 40-50 person team that is ONLY working on the beta for all platforms. We simply can't do that unless we pushed the launch a lot more. I confident that fans would be very unhappy if we did that. I hope this helps explain the reason why we're not supporting a beta on console. -W 13 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JPops 2,218 Posted October 26, 2016 Wes great to see you posting! And a great post at that. Thank you for this! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GunMedia_Ben 3,032 Posted October 26, 2016 We were going to make one of the IllFonic guys do both a PS4 and Xbox One beta and get it ready for everyone, but our lawyers said it was 'cruel and unusual' and that 'beating them until morale improved' was not a good strategy. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
evil_weasel 2 Posted October 26, 2016 We were going to make one of the IllFonic guys do both a PS4 and Xbox One beta and get it ready for everyone, but our lawyers said it was 'cruel and unusual' and that 'beating them until morale improved' was not a good strategy. Haha thanks for the laugh Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JPops 2,218 Posted October 26, 2016 We were going to make one of the IllFonic guys do both a PS4 and Xbox One beta and get it ready for everyone, but our lawyers said it was 'cruel and unusual' and that 'beating them until morale improved' was not a good strategy. Lawyers ruin everything. lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCREWNUT 256 Posted October 26, 2016 Thanks for the update. I figured that certification through MS and/or Sony would be a bitch. It does leave me wondering about two questions though....1. What's certification like for a Nintendo Product? 2. Can we expect a delay on consoles when the game is fully released because of the rigid certification process? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IronKnight55 340 Posted October 26, 2016 This was a great post. Very informative Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Davidt 763 Posted October 27, 2016 Great information wes hopefully this settles the questions of "will beta be on ps4/xbox one?" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
greywolf1319 21 Posted October 27, 2016 Lawyer to Wes and Ben Lawyer: Im here to talk about the labor conditions in your shop Ben: Labor conditions in my shop? I dont sweat them Lawyer: ... Wes: Looks like someone needs the motivational cattle prod or the whip of enthusiasm Ben: Get the shackles of morale Lawyer: LET ME GO,,,,,NOOO!!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GunMedia_Ben 3,032 Posted October 27, 2016 Thanks for the update. I figured that certification through MS and/or Sony would be a bitch. It does leave me wondering about two questions though.... 1. What's certification like for a Nintendo Product? 2. Can we expect a delay on consoles when the game is fully released because of the rigid certification process? 1. Very, very, very, very, very arduous. 2. We've already factored in our cert for the game well before we got started on the project. A console beta was always seen as a luxury outside of our schedule and budget, depending on how the Kickstarter performed. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCREWNUT 256 Posted October 27, 2016 1. Very, very, very, very, very arduous. 2. We've already factored in our cert for the game well before we got started on the project. A console beta was always seen as a luxury outside of our schedule and budget, depending on how the Kickstarter performed. HA ha ha ha ha. That explains why we only ever see the same old IPs on any Nintendo Product. Thanks for the reply. You guys are on the ball! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Absoluttion 33 Posted October 28, 2016 I got myself a PC copy of the game, but as someone who has an Xbox as well I completely get the hoops that need to be jumped through. I know people get pissy about no console beta, but they're going to just have to understand. It's not a choice, it is a result of money and time. Glad to see you on here and it's a very well-written post. I hope this can open peoples eyes and show them that making a game isn't drag and drop stuff Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sanetsuken 116 Posted October 28, 2016 CAN we use a controller on the beta? Is that a consideration, or is it more "if it works go ahead" type of deal? Dunno why, but something tells me i'll prefer controllers for this particular game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wes 1,305 Posted November 1, 2016 CAN we use a controller on the beta? Is that a consideration, or is it more "if it works go ahead" type of deal? Dunno why, but something tells me i'll prefer controllers for this particular game. Yes we will support controllers in the beta. As long as your PC has the proper drivers in place, you can connect a PS3/4, 360/XB1 or just about any other USB controller within reason, and it'll work. I can also confirm that playing with a controller "feels right". But that's just me. I've always struggled with M+KB on 3rd person games. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Konrad939 0 Posted November 1, 2016 Hello everyone! I am blood hungry murderer waiting for this game from a loong loong time! I want to try it sooo bad, but i havent got any opportunity to do it. If somebody have one beta key i would appreciate it and maybe give something in exchange. Please be kind and share this experiance with me! http://steamcommunity.com/id/kodzius/ - this is my steam account if you want a contact and maybe we can try beta together ! I am really up for teaming up! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bishi Boshi 13 Posted December 2, 2016 As a console player for me that sucks why your doing it i can understand. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCREWNUT 256 Posted December 2, 2016 As a console player for me that sucks why your doing it i can understand. Yeah. Xbox One gamer here. It does suck, but like you said, I too understand why they have to do it this way. The worse part going to be the next 3 or 4 months as the PC master race enjoys the Beta. Think I might just retire from this forum until the actual release date. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ResolutionBlaze 587 Posted December 2, 2016 Yeah. Xbox One gamer here. It does suck, but like you said, I too understand why they have to do it this way. The worse part going to be the next 3 or 4 months as the PC master race enjoys the Beta. Think I might just retire from this forum until the actual release date. I'm sure Closed Beta will be soon after Friends and Family. And game play vids will be up by then. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCREWNUT 256 Posted December 3, 2016 I'm sure Closed Beta will be soon after Friends and Family. And game play vids will be up by then. I will be getting 5 beta codes. I pre ordered the game fully before it was funded. I got the "early bird" level, so it only cost me 25 US dollars. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bishi Boshi 13 Posted December 6, 2016 I may just be able to hit minimum specs on my pc i used CAN YOU RUN IT its not been updated in a while but heres the games stats Minimum Spec Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required) 4 GB Ram Intel Core i5-3550 3.3 GHz/AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz or equivalent Radeon HD 7700 2GB / GTX 660 2GB 10 GB Hard Drive Space Recommended Spec Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required) 8 GB Ram Intel Core i5 4750 3.2 GHz/AMD FX-8350 4.7 GHz or equivalent NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent 10 GB Hard Drive Space Heres Mine will i be ok on this for minimum guys im a pc n00bVIDEO CARD Minimum: DirectX 11 COmpatible GPU with 2GB Video RAM You Have: AMD Radeon HD 7000 series CPU Minimum: Info You Have: AMD A10-6700 APU with Radeon HD Graphics RAM Minimum: 8 GB You Have: 6.0 GB CPU SPEED Minimum: 2.0 GHz Dual-Core 64-bit CPU You Have: 3.7 GH Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCREWNUT 256 Posted December 6, 2016 I can also confirm that playing with a controller "feels right". But that's just me. I've always struggled with M+KB on 3rd person games. This. This is yet another reason I'm a console bitch as opposed to the Master Race PCers. I love a good old joystick! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bishi Boshi 13 Posted December 6, 2016 This. This is yet another reason I'm a console bitch as opposed to the Master Race PCers. I love a good old joystick! That sounds soooooo sooooooo wrong lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCREWNUT 256 Posted December 7, 2016 That sounds soooooo sooooooo wrong lol Not all of us play for the same team, mate! HA HA HA HA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZATIONIE 39 Posted December 10, 2016 Hey guys, if you read some of my post I'm not a PC gamer I run Xbox & PS4. but I came across the Alienware Alpha Ad, been reading a lot of mixed reviews and before I spend the money would like some 1st hand feedback, any of you own it? have any feedback, will it run this game no problem,would it be a good purchase? thinking about getting it so I can play beta and order PC version too then I'll have game on all 3 systems and at gamestop only $375 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JPops 2,218 Posted December 10, 2016 If its $375 probably not, but if you have a link with specs I am sure someone will take a look. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites