Titanfall 2 Beta Not Coming to PC, Dates Teased
The studio actually only needs one platform to test server scaling.
[UPDATE] Vince Zampella has now offered a tease for when the Titanfall 2 beta may begin.
I'd say keep the next two weekends free
— Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) August 15, 2016
The original story is below.
Titanfall 2's upcoming multiplayer beta will not be available on PC, Respawn Entertainment announced today. Instead, it will be exclusive to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
In a blog post, Respawn co-founder and CEO Vince Zampella said the studio is holding the beta to test its servers and validate that they can scale as intended. The studio actually only needs one platform to test this "since our server backend is per-platform," Zampella said.
"More platforms can be a good sanity check, but we don't need to test them all to make sure we are on a good path for launch," Zampella said.
The Titanfall 2 beta, or "multiplayer tech test" as Respawn calls it, is skipping PC for two main reasons, including hardware variety and optimization for "min spec" machines.
"We're still making a lot of tweaks and changes to the renderer, the game, and effects so we haven't run the game through the hardware compatibility lab yet to detect and handle a large variety of hardware--video cards, CPUs, etc.," Zampella explained. "Quite frankly, we aren't ready to deal with that yet, we are still making the game better."
On the subject of minimum-specification optimization, Zampella said Respawn has not done enough work to fully support Titanfall 2 on lower-spec rigs.
"So, currently the PC game isn't as easy to throw out for testing as the console is, because of the additional variables and configurations that we need to support," he said.
Zampella also explained that releasing the Titanfall 2 beta on PC might lead to some story secrets emerging from "wonderfully curious PC players." These users "have proven in the past that they will dig out anything they can, and there's a risk that they could spoil some of our single-player," he said.
The executive added that he understands this is a "big disappoint" for PC players, but remarked that he's sure the team at Respawn will "deliver a great PC experience for launch."
A start date for the Titanfall 2 beta has not been announced.
Titanfall 2 is scheduled to launch on October 28 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Tomorrow during Gamescom, Respawn will broadcast a live multiplayer match featuring a number of gaming personalities.
For more on Titanfall 2, check out GameSpot's recent feature on the franchise-first single-player campaign.
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