I never understood the policy behind this franchise

[Zeevs86]

I never understood the policy behind this franchise.
This is one of the game series that is so hard to join.
I remember having a PS3 and the stores sold only some preview version.
Then I just read that in April you could test the latest title of Gran Turismo for only 4 days back in April 2017.
Just to understand the logic behind these decisions makes my head hurt. This is so confusing.
Why would you release a payed half baked version for PS3 that costs money.
Why would you release a demo version only for 4 days half a year before the actual game release?

 

[GT5 Level 41]

I never understood the policy behind this franchise.
This is one of the game series that is so hard to join.
I remember having a PS3 and the stores sold only some preview version.
Then I just read that in April you could test the latest title of Gran Turismo for only 4 days back in April 2017.
Just to understand the logic behind these decisions makes my head hurt. This is so confusing.
Why would you release a payed half baked version for PS3 that costs money.
Why would you release a demo version only for 4 days half a year before the actual game release?

They're only doing this to test the servers and if generally the game works or not. They are using the incentive of our credits and other achievements transferring to get us to do it.

 

[Zeevs86]

They're only doing this to test the servers and if generally the game works or not. They are using the incentive of our credits and other achievements transferring to get us to do it.

So they basically just using free human resource instead of hiring more people into quality assurance department?

 

[JLBowler]

So they basically just using free human resource instead of hiring more people into quality assurance department?

Sure. Let's pay a million plus people to stress test a server for four days and then pass that cost along to the customer. Your game will now cost $5,999.99.

Note that I didn't do any math to come up with that number. It's thrown out to make a point of how absurd the idea of hiring people to stress test a server would be.

 

[Zeevs86]

Sure. Let's pay a million plus people to stress test a server for four days and then pass that cost along to the customer. Your game will now cost $5,999.99.

Note that I didn't do any math to come up with that number. It's thrown out to make a point of how absurd the idea of hiring people to stress test a server would be.

I would assume that you have never had experience testing something and/or did not have experience in the QA field.
You do not need 5000 customers to overload a server.

Actually, it was not at all my point
I was a bit angry that they released a demo only for 4 days. I bet the players not only connected to their servers, but they actually played it also.

 

[daan]

Then I just read that in April you could test the latest title of Gran Turismo for only 4 days back in April 2017.

Why would you release a demo version only for 4 days half a year before the actual game release?

Did you read your link? They didn't release anything back in April.

 

[Midboss]

I don't understand your point.

A. Many, Many, Many online games do something similar to make sure the online works on release day.
B. It benefits Polyphony because they don't get slammed for releasing a broken game on release day.
C. It benefits the GT fans because they get to play the game sooner and get to carryover some credits and cars.

While you can do automated stress testing, it would not find all the bugs that don't cause crashing. Hell, it probably would not find all of the crashing bugs either since someone has to tell the automated testing what to do and they would miss things in their scripts.

Win/Win

 

[pokemonfan58]

Has the op ever played a beta or demo before?

The purpose of the demo of GTS is to let others test the game for any issues that persists within the servers or bugs in the game before release. I'm sure no one wants a broken game.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Then I just read that in April you could test the latest title of Gran Turismo for only 4 days back in April 2017.

Considering that article was published this week, that doesn't make any sense.

The beta, which was live around that time, ran for months, not days.

 

[trustjab]

I never understood the policy behind this franchise.
This is one of the game series that is so hard to join.
I remember having a PS3 and the stores sold only some preview version.
Then I just read that in April you could test the latest title of Gran Turismo for only 4 days back in April 2017.
Just to understand the logic behind these decisions makes my head hurt. This is so confusing.
Why would you release a payed half baked version for PS3 that costs money.
Why would you release a demo version only for 4 days half a year before the actual game release?

This sentence right here makes me question if you even know about Gran Turismo. People loved the prologue, and the desire for it was obvious with the millions of sales it garnered. They remedy that 'problem' with paying by doing this game, basically giving you a (limited time) beta and demo (that's 2) for free to download. They probably had million(s) play the latest demo. Your concerns don't seem ingenuous and it appears you have a slant in your first post/thread. Sounds familiar.

 

[daan]

The OP is confused between the US 10/04 (4th October) and the UK 10/04 (10th April) which makes his argument invalid.

 

[DigitalBaka]

I think @JLBowler's point is that there are currently over one million people globally that are actively using this 4 day demo period, even given that it is days before release. And if you look at the front page news you can see they are using the collected data to adjust their infrastructure strategy. Given the launch day bombs of some games in the recent past this sounds like a fantastic effort on PDs part to get ahead of that.

April, I believe, was a closed beta, not uncommon for online games. Several MMOs come to mind and if you've ever spent any time on Steam you know all about early access betas. This second demo is a little unusual but clearly good things have come from it on the eve of launch.

In reference to the PS3 versions you mentioned, that's probably GT5 Prologue you're talking about? Same sort of deal but I think that was before large downloads of say 40GB+ were feasible widely. An oddball for sure to pay $20 for basically an expanded demo but clearly that model also works, though less so had they done so in today's market.

If you're having trouble getting into the series I think it is probably your own fault. Nothing GT is or has done is too abnormal or restrictive for players.

 

[JLBowler]

I would assume that you have never had experience testing something and/or did not have experience in the QA field.
You do not need 5000 customers to overload a server.

Actually, it was not at all my point
I was a bit angry that they released a demo only for 4 days. I bet the players not only connected to their servers, but they actually played it also.

Now I get it. You're angry that you got something free for a limited time. My apologies for interrupting with a little logic.

@DigitalBaka You got it. Simulated load tests on servers can be very effective but there really is no substitute for actual users connecting with their actual internet connections to perform a live test on servers and there is no way that any company in going to hire all those users as employees. Those users are getting something for their time. They are getting the ability to play the game.