Only one Console Beta at just 4 days long. Why ZoS?

Zazaaji · April 2015

http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2015/04/22/the-esotu-console-beta-starts-tomorrow

This is a limited public beta—it will be our one beta before launch, and you must receive an invite to participate.

The ESOTU console beta test opens on Thursday, April 23rd, at 10AM EDT and ends on Monday, April 27th, at 10AM EDT.

What was the decision reason behind only having one 4 day period to gather all console feedback and bug reports?

EDIT: Neverwinter did this.... almost exactly. They had a 3 day beta about a month and a half before Xbox One release and no others. ESO is having a 4 day beta about a month and a half before release and no others. Neverwinter turned out pretty bad, mostly due to an abysmal frame rate.

PKMN12 · April 2015

The p2p time on pc was the beta for console

Zazaaji · April 2015

PKMN12 wrote: »

The p2p time on pc was the beta for console

See my edit comparison.

lordspyder · April 2015

I just want to know why they haven't already sent out invites, I may not get to play if I do get one because of the massive download required may not be done in time.

Gidorick · April 2015

Because it's really just a demo.

Zazaaji · April 2015

lordspyder wrote: »

I just want to know why they haven't already sent out invites, I may not get to play if I do get one because of the massive download required may not be done in time.

Has it been confirmed they haven't gone out? All I could find is that they are going out today in waves, but I couldn't find anything saying if they've already sent out the first wave or not.

If (I have always said "if" in regards to me getting an invite) I get an invite, I'm lucky enough to be able to download it at a public place today with fast internet.

NewBlacksmurf · April 2015

There haven't been many useful tries at beta on console. One notable one was Halo 5 but other than that....yeah it seems it's just for promotional purposes and to test out developer projections and used to market interest this they are always outside of NDA

Zazaaji · April 2015

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

There haven't been many useful tries at beta on console. One notable one was Halo 5 but other than that....yeah it seems it's just for promotional purposes and to test out developer projections and used to market interest this they are always outside of NDA

Good point

Side note - Am I imagining things, or are you always online on these forums?

NewBlacksmurf · April 2015

Zazaaji wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

There haven't been many useful tries at beta on console. One notable one was Halo 5 but other than that....yeah it seems it's just for promotional purposes and to test out developer projections and used to market interest this they are always outside of NDA

Good point
Side note - Am I imagining things, or are you always online on these forums?

I work an unusual day job where I'm paid to find stuff online all day. So yes I'm ALWAYS online either mobile or laptop

ItsGlaive · April 2015

I want your job

On topic though, it's risky. One of the things that scared pc players away was the number of bugs at launch. You'd think they'd throw everything at the console beta, have as many as possible with as many people as possible to stress test as much as possible.

If it were me, I'd want to push it to the limits to ensure as near as I can to deliver the smooth launch that PC players were promised way back when

natsamson · April 2015

We don't really need any more days than a few, I played on PC since launch then left for a few months but I'm trying it again now and will be on PS4. People I assume already know about the game but just needed the feeling of playing it themselves.

Zazaaji · April 2015

natsamson wrote: »

We don't really need any more days than a few, I played on PC since launch then left for a few months but I'm trying it again now and will be on PS4. People I assume already know about the game but just needed the feeling of playing it themselves.

Same was thought of as Neverwinter. Now we have an Xbox One game that literally dips to less than 10 frames per second regularly in a major city and pretty much all end-game level zones.

NewBlacksmurf · April 2015

Xabien wrote: »

I want your job

On topic though, it's risky. One of the things that scared pc players away was the number of bugs at launch. You'd think they'd throw everything at the console beta, have as many as possible with as many people as possible to stress test as much as possible.

If it were me, I'd want to push it to the limits to ensure as near as I can to deliver the smooth launch that PC players were promised way back when

Usually what happens is it starts closed(on Xbox at least) and then Saturday it's opened to all so maybe the stress test will still occur over the weekend BUT I'm going out of town so If no email by tomorrow I'll miss it all

Pallmor · April 2015

Well, I guess it's just enough time to get a sense of how well the UI works. That's about it. It's kind of bizarre, though. I was expecting for there to be an open beta for a full month leading up to the release.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · April 2015

Zazaaji wrote: »

PKMN12 wrote: »

The p2p time on pc was the beta for console

See my edit comparison.

Zazaaji wrote: »

natsamson wrote: »

We don't really need any more days than a few, I played on PC since launch then left for a few months but I'm trying it again now and will be on PS4. People I assume already know about the game but just needed the feeling of playing it themselves.

Same was thought of as Neverwinter. Now we have an Xbox One game that literally dips to less than 10 frames per second regularly in a major city and pretty much all end-game level zones.

Abysmal frame rates aren't likely to need a long beta test to show up, and a fix isn't going to arrive simply because the beta test is umpteen days rather than 4.

The PC-based beta was long because ZOS were testing everything, including a myriad of PC configs .. consoles are a fixed config, ZOS can easily do more than sufficient testing in house for 99% of it, players aren't going to have hardware setups ZOS have never tried.

In fact a beta for this game on a console is entirely optional, ZOS could release it without any public 'testing', it's more PR than anything else.

driosketch · April 2015

It's also possible they have a group of select testers in a longer beta for the console.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · April 2015

Given the massive problems with server lag on the PC platform, it would seem wise to at least do a proper stress test for the consoles, if nothing else to spread the word that the console versions work better than the current PC version. The public trust in ZOS to get it right is not very strong right now.

izenkim_ESO · April 2015

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

In fact a beta for this game on a console is entirely optional, ZOS could release it without any public 'testing', it's more PR than anything else.

Bingo. The "beta" is to build interest. Bug reports and feedback will change little at this point and most of them would probably relate to the game as a whole and not relate specifically to the console version.