I guess summer isn’t leaving when it’s supposed to because it sure as hell is going to be one hot Fall this year. You have the 360 dropping Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Saints Row 2 and Left 4 Dead and then you have the PS3 with LittleBigPlanet, BioShock, SOCOM: Confrontation, Resistance 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. And, of course, each is going to have a huge network update that’s going to include a revamp of their social networks with PlayStation Home and Xbox 360’s Avatar social limbo. But, it seems that Sony really wants to lure in their gamers this Fall.
With a barrage of Beta keys, Sony has been constantly handing out invites for their first-party big hitters to the PSN community. You have Home, SOCOM: Confrontation, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, and Killzone 2 creeping out of the mist announcing public invites. If that’s not enough to cause chaos on their servers, then I don’t know what is. With this sort of heat, Sony sure as hell is teasing the bejesus out of their supporters, but they’re doing the right thing. By doing this, Sony’s maintaining a constant flow of lust for their first-party exclusives. For some strange marketing reason, it keeps PS3 owners attentive and wanting more (even for those who haven’t touched the Betas). I, for one, know that I’m gonna go pre-order some “stuff”. <sarcasm>Bet you can’t guess what they are…</sarcasm>
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Write a Comment»I really think a lot of gamers just associate Betas with Demos. It’s not the same thing. And, sadly, I think Marketing and PR have fallen into that trap as well
Matt, I couldn’t agree with you more. I would consider Betas more of a “glorified demo” being that only a handful of people are able to actually get their hands on them. But demos nonetheless. You’re 100% right as per where marketing and PR are concerned as well.
I want in on the LBP beta. I’ve beta tested dozens of games over the years, but haven’t been in on a good one in a while.
Its a nice way to try before you buy for gamers but its also a bit of testing the waters for the developers and publishers. This can be useful to get feedback from the market and hopefully make changes before the game prints. But the first publisher/developer to pull a game for some major overhauls after beta testing may come under serious fire.
Betas should be kept very tight and very limited though. Nice way to increase hype, but I guess the net world may flame you for that if they feel shunned… But I won’t do that to you game companies, I’ll still love you.