With the recent release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix beta program on the X360 marketplace, Sony fans were a little disappointed to learn they wouldn’t be treated to an online beta of their own.
Obviously, it would only make sense for Capcom to release an online beta for both consoles resulting in a much larger testing group. The reason for this is simple; Capcom says that an online beta program isn’t possible on the PlayStation 3 console.
"As for not having a beta program on PSN, it has already been stated that this is due to a technical issue with Sony. As in, they don’t support such a program yet,” said Seth Killian, a Senior Manager for the Capcom community.
That is where things get a little shaky. Didn’t Guerilla Games say they were hoping to create an online beta for its Killzone fans sometime this year? How do they plan on achieving this if what Capcom says is true and impossible?
According to another member of the Capcom family, "…even if it were possible for Sony to do, it would require 3 submissions (US, Europe, Asia/Japan) to reach the same global audience we can with MS in a single test and global submission."
We understand that lately a lot of PlayStation fans have been under the assumption that Capcom has just stopped caring as much about the Sony fanbase and have decided to focus more on Microsoft. Things like this definitely help strengthen that case even if it may not be true.
With Capcom removing Sony exclusives such as Devil May Cry 4 and bringing it to other platforms, one can only assume they were trying to start a brand equality opposed to brand loyalty; however, that isn’t so clear now.
As more information is revealed around the issue regarding open online betas, we’ll keep you informed. We’re sure Sony would like to address the problem and if not, that’s a shame for a lot of gamers.