Gears of 4 Dev: Industry Has “Twisted” The Word “Beta”

Fergusson notes that the studio is "actually testing systems" and seeking feedback.

Posted By | On 21st, Apr. 2016

Gears of War 4

The Coalition’s Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta has been live since April 18th and has been facing a number of issues (though some users, like myself, didn’t see anything terrible, there are also bugs like this going around).

In that respect, studio head Rod Fergusson made it clear from the beginning that the beta is far from a technical marvel. Speaking to MCVUK, Fergusson further noted that the industry has “twisted” what the concept of a demo is.

“The industry has taken the word beta and twisted it to mean ‘pre-release demo’. The community thinks they should be a highly polished demo. We are really focused on saying we’re pre-alpha right now. I even joked that we should call our beta an alpha just so people understand where we are and that we are actually looking for feedback and we’re actually testing systems.”

He further noted that Gears of War titles have faced issues and the purpose of a beta is to ensure a smooth launch for the final game. “We stumbled out of the gate with Gears 2 because it was our first time doing party-based match-making. We were testing that with 1,000 people internally with Microsoft and all of a sudden it was a million people and everything falls down.”

The Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta will be available to all Xbox Live Gold members on April 25th so we’ll see how it pans out among a wider audience. The game itself is out in October.


Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out!

Share Your Thoughts Below  (Always follow our comments policy!)



Keep On Reading!

Why I Am Looking Forward to Stellar Blade

Why I Am Looking Forward to Stellar Blade

Now we’ve spent time with the demo, it’s clear Korean developer Shift Up is shaping things up to deliver o...

Fable – What the Heck is Going On?

Fable – What the Heck is Going On?

Announced in 2020, Playground Games' open-world action RPG has seen sporadic updates and departures but still ...

15 New Video Games That Are Doing Something Unique

15 New Video Games That Are Doing Something Unique

With this feature, we take a look at 15 upcoming games that are trying to do something fresh and original that...

Top 30 Most Disappointing Video Games

Top 30 Most Disappointing Video Games

Despite all the hype, marketing, development time and resources behind them, these blockbuster titles would di...

10 New Things We’ve Learned About Star Wars Outlaws

10 New Things We’ve Learned About Star Wars Outlaws

Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment have revealed a host of new details on their upcoming open world game.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Will Nerf Dragonsplague with its Next Update

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Will Nerf Dragonsplague with its Next Update

The update, which will roll out later this month, will also bring several other polish changes, balancing twea...