Space Marine 2 public beta cancelled to "focus on polish and optimization"

Saw this in my news feed today:

Space Marine 2 public beta testing so developers can focus on "optimization, polish, and fixing remaining issues".

Not sure if this bodes well or poorly for the game, as it should more or less be a finished game at this point, being that the release date is mere months away.

This can mean a lot of things, most of which are negatives. Off the top of my head:

• They aren't happy with the game as a whole, and wish to hide it from the public to keep pre-orders hi and returns low.
• The game has a lot of crippling bugs and technical issues, which might scare people into not buying it.
• There might be an announcement that the game release is pushed back.

I'm thinking that the game is, for lack of a better word, underwhelming. Mediocre. They probably did some "friends and family" and insider testing and they got lukewarm responses, so now they're clamming up until the release date and hoping to cash in on the Warhammer 40K IP.

This supports my fear about the game in that it is essentially a rehash of the first game, a game that has aged poorly and doesn't really offer enough.

Still, though; I remain hopeful that they hit it out of the park. I hope it is a good game.

What say you, Gamespot?

MP beta version always create negative reception of games having SP.

happened with Doom 2016 MP beta where everyone judge its SP based on that call it Halo clone, ruined and then game release everyone surprise how different it was from MP beta.

Smart, betas can leave bad impressions on people. Then again, this close to launch, kind of concerning.

Yes. I've been in a lot of betas and in the past they've been actually insightful testings long before the release of the game, but recent trends have betas being more like a restaurant "soft opening" to generate hype, often with the beta close to release of the game.

If this beta was 8+ months before the release of the game (or, I don't know, some other timeline well before the release of the game) I wouldn't be concerned but at this point all this cancellation says to me is "Hey, beta cancelled, we were uncomfortable with how it would be received".

If this was an actual beta (as in, a test) then the bugs and quality would sort of be the entire point of a beta: to stress test the game by the general public and to use those tests to improve the game.

This reeks more of publicity than genuine concern for the game quality.

Another game shilled by ghosts turns to 💩

Good job ghosts 🤣

Looks like the most impressive warhammer 40k game I've ever seen so it would have to absolutely bomb in order for me to skip it.

Yeah, don't get me wrong: I really really really would like this game to be great.

But having replayed the original not too long ago and finding it lacking and not as good as I recall, and with this announcement about the beta cancelled so close to release....I just don't know anymore.

the game looks to huge step forward from original having more enemies on screen.

cancelling MP beta is good because like I said it create negative impression.

Lets look at this:

• 1 year delay = red flag!
• Paid launch date, Paywall behind + $30 = red flag!
• A short campaign and few missions = red flag!
• Last minute pvp for filler = red flag!
• Public beta cancelled = red flag!

Overall, just wait for reviews before purchasing is what I'll be doing despite I'm looking forward to Space Marine 2.

If the NDA for reviews is on the same day as the release day, this is a big ooooof.

Ya all this new information coming out just doesn't paint a pretty picture, as you listed.

The multiplayer especially just seems like a last-minute effort to add value to what would otherwise be a fairly short (~12 hour) game.

Sounds like a sleeper hit.🙃

Why does this sound shady as hell?

My Warhammer friends are already throwing their money at this game based on the exciting trailers. I however am less inclined to put my trust in these trailers. I'll wait until the word is out on the street.

@R4gn4r0k said:

Why does this sound shady as hell?

My Warhammer friends are already throwing their money at this game based on the exciting trailers. I however am less inclined to put my trust in these trailers. I'll wait until the word is out on the street.

Yeah, I don't get it. But I suppose it's the natural progression.

Buy early for custom skins->buy early for early access->buy early for beta access (aka "super early access"). Even Blizzard is doing this now with their upcoming War Within expansion for WoW. Lame.

Used to be that companies and customers had an understanding where betas were free and we'd bug test the game and get a taste of the game, and as a result the game would end up better as a result. This whole paid access thing is just cynical and opportunistic as hell. I hate it.

@mrbojangles25: I dont mind a game being 12 hours, if it's replayable with co op, new difficulty modes, or a horde mode, which this game SHOULD have

Yeah I'm OK with it too.

What I am against are tacked-on, half-assed components.

I really hope the multiplayer and stuff is good. But if it's bad, I'd rather they had just made the 12-hour campaign better. Seems like a very non-developer, executive-backed decision.

@mrbojangles25: I mean I kind of like that the game has single player and a multiplayer mode. It kind of reminds me of the PS3/360 gen where every game was like that.

I think the Dev bit off more than they could chew TBH. Maybe should have focused on single player then update it later with a MP mode

My most recent thoughts were that advanced access is actually the reverse of what a lot of gamers tend to do these days:

ie. wait for a game to go down in price.

So I'm thinking that day one sales aren't what they used to be anymore. A lot of gamers will just wait it out these days, every game goes on sale after all.

So these companies are thinking: what if we see what the most die hard fans are willing to pay.

30 extra smackers on top of the base price does seem ludicrous to me, but what if other people are willing to pay for that privilege. The fans, the die hards, the ... whales?

____

And then aside from that yeah it really has become a trend. Microsoft started doing it because they don't want people playing for free with game pass (lol)

Forza Horizon 5, Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Age of Mythology all had/have some form of advanced access.

And yeah there was the whole thing about people refunding these games before the advanced access period was over, and they got their money back even with dozens of hours played.

So of course Steam plugged that loophole. And now clearly labels these games as advanced access period, with the withdrawal period of course being the same as a normal product.

And yeah now you can clearly see which games are gonna do this:

Silent Hill 2, Solar Crown, Age of mythology, these are all games that are gonna come with this "pay more and get in early" type of BS.

Can't wait

Here was an interesting reflection on Game Workshop's recent over-focusing on the WH40K Space Marines, from books to tabletop and now new TV series, and what it could mean about future of WH40K.

Honestly when I dipped my toes into the WH40K universe years back, it was with the original Dawn Of War games, and I didn't really fall in love with WH40K license itself, just appreciated it as a very stylized RTS game. Then of course the Space Marines game of 7th gen brought me back. I saw it early on as a Space Marines focused franchise.

I tried to get into other games afterwards but the video games with the license are very niche and low quality. I didn't bother to know more about the WH40K universe until last year when playing Darktide and this same guy above made good video for players of the game to know more about WH40K universe lore relevant to the game itself, and it got me hooked on lore videos, some from him, some from others. And yeah, there's a lot more crazy shit in the WH40K universe beyond Space Marines, like A LOT. So much potential, but also so much story it'd be hard to build a world for first timers.

Anyhow, basically the worry is the success of the game and upcoming show could grow interest in WH40K content but also in doing so narrow future content what's catching people's attention.

@lamprey263: Yeah I'd say about 1 in 5 Warhammer games are good. Though they really tend to crank out the bargain-bin stuff, so it might even be worse than that.

Still, we've had some good Warhammer games over the years. I wouldn't write them off entirely:

• Darktide
• Space Marine
• Warhammer: Total War
• Gladius
• Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters
• Dawn of War 1
• Dawn of War 2
• Inquisitor
• Rogue Trader
• Vermintide 1
• Vermintide 2
• Mechanicus
• Space Hulk
• Boltgun
• Battlefleet Gothic

Now, that might seem like a lot of decent Warhammer games, but given how much crap they also churn out...it's not really a good ration. Equally important is the sheer amount of half-assed DLC they release for what seems like ALL of these games. So even if you get a good game, don't expect any good extra content.

It's another example of good developers matched with poor business. Games Workshop really just seems to want to churn stuff out constantly and get people not only buying the initial product, but staying hooked on the line for as long as possible. I heard it's like this with their tabletop stuff as well. Just tons of revisions and changes and updates you need to keep buying.