But Capcom’s working on it
This weekend’s Street Fighter V beta could be described as many things. Smooth isn’t one of them.
Players have struggled to get past the start screen since the beta launched Thursday evening, and those that have actually managed to log in have experienced a lot of matchmaking issues.
Yesterday, I followed Maximilian Dood‘s Twitch stream for several hours, and while a lot of beta participants say he was luckier than most, the man still spent the vast majority of the day in training mode waiting for matches that seemed like they might never come.
Across the Internet, players reported seeing error messages numbered 21007 (meaning servers are at capacity) and 10003 (disconnects) and 22002 (unable to connect to server), among others.
Capcom gradually increased server capacity, working around the clock to solve issues and improve things, but many players were still levied complains at the publisher, saying nothing had changed.
Last night, the beta went down for scheduled maintenance, which has been extended into today:
The SFV beta will be inaccessable today as our servers are down for maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenince caused.
— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) July 26, 2015
Capcom has yet to announce when the beta will return, but promises whenever it does, it will be extended beyond July 28 to help make up for the headaches and lost time.
This is, of course, a beta — not a demo — which is designed to help Capcom test its servers and make sure problems like this don’t crop up on launch day. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less frustrating for those involved, whether they be players, programmers, or support staff.
But the rub for many is the fact that the beta’s price of entry was pre-ordering the game. Capcom used the beta as an incentive to get people to put money down. And now a large number of them are disappointed. One NeoGAF user said that while they didn’t expect the beta to be smooth sailing, it’s nevertheless been an “unmitigated disaster” thus far.
The beta isn’t over, though. And more betas still are planned for the future. So, Capcom has plenty of time to prepare for Street Fighter V‘s spring 2016 release and ensure this doesn’t happen then.
