The Street Fighter 5 beta launched a few hours ago, and unfortunately it was not without incident.
The original plan was to give players a few hours to try the beta online only. They would choose their characters, be placed in training mode during matchmaking, play an online match, and then be placed back into training for the duration of their time playing. Only four players were planned to be scheduled today, namely, Ryu, Chun-li, Nash, and M. Bison.
The way it played out was fans found the beta laggy, even on training mode, and many ran into issues logging in. Capcom had to take the servers offline to fix the issue, and subsequently extended the beta for another 2 hours. Fans who logged back in also found that Cammy and Birdie were unlocked.
For Capcom, this isn’t just about making it up to their loyal Street Fighter fanbase. Capcom has shifted its business around digital and online businesses, as their gameplan to return to profitability in the next few years. This was a test of their proprietary Kagemusha netcode, which will be powering the game in the months to come.
Of course, this beta test was intended to find issues just like this, but it’s hard to argue that Capcom wanted to play it out this way, as they clearly had difficulties getting the beta back online. Plans to launch the beta for PlayStation 4 only may also have backfired, as it certainly does not look as good for Sony as planned. Still, there are four more days for this beta phase to go.
How did you do with the Street Fighter 5 beta? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
