DICE: There's a 'misunderstanding of the term beta test'
7th Oct 2011 | 09:53
DICE has gone on the defensive again over the Battlefield 3 beta, which has split opinion among gamers.
Explaining that the beta is not a demo, as well as the studio's decision to run with the vehicle-free Operation Metro map, producer Patrick Liu told the Guardian: "Yeah, I think there's been a misunderstanding of the term 'beta test'!
"We ran the alpha tests with a rush map and we wanted to have some sort of reference so we could compare results - so we needed to have more-or-less the same map. But we do understand the concerns that we didn't show a conquest map, but we have demoed Caspian Border, and we did run a conquest map as a limited PC-only test.
"It's taught us a lot," Liu added. "Our primary intentions have been to test the backend... In previous games, like Bad Company and 1943, we've had serious problems with the backend, it's just been overloaded - this time it hasn't been a problem. We just wanted to know it wouldn't crash and burn at launch."
Earlier this week, DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson said the Battlefield 3 beta is based on software that's over a one month old, and that "the final game will look, play and sound better".
