Call of Duty Elite PS3 beta begins!

by Dan on September 17, 2011

Fresh from the official Twitter account of Call of Duty Elite, here is an important update for the PlayStation 3 players who have been eager to check their stats and see a slice of what Elite will offer when it goes live in November. Says @CallOfDutyElite on Twitter:

The first batch of invites to the #CODElite BETA went out for early PS3 sign-ups. More to come in the coming days/weeks so keep an eye out!

This is obviously good news, and since they will be rolling out more invites over the next few weeks, a little more patience will get you through — but I’ve heard from several PS3 players that they are now in. So I hope you’re next!

But…I also have a rant to get out, which you don’t have to read if you don’t want to. Click through at your own peril.

Since the beta kicked off some months ago, a lot of folks have asked “When will the PS3 beta for Call of Duty Elite start?” A fair question — I know everybody is curious and eager. But many times it’s chased with “The 360 beta started weeks ago. Why does Xbox 360 get everything first? THIS IS NOT FAIR BIAS BIAS BIAS OMG BIAS.”

I feel like a broken record, but my response has been the same: When Beachhead is ready to tackle that stage of the beta, you will be contacted. Volunteering to help means you are on their schedule for when that help is needed, and their schedule is, by necessity, flexible. This is not something that can or should be rushed; it’s too big to mess up by moving too quickly. One platform to start is plenty of work; they need to get that squared away first. You don’t cram your mouth full of a whole box of french fries simply because you have a whole box in front of you — you eat one at a time, or you choke and die. So, when they are ready to add more data to their big public testing state, they will add it, and that’s when you should expect a call.

Also…it’s worth mentioning that being in the beta involves work. Your feedback, in the form of surveys and emails and bug reports, is the most crucial part of this thing. It’s awesome if you like what you see, but if you’re not ready to deliver detailed, constructive feedback, you really should not have volunteered to do exactly that.

Wanna ride right now?

This is not an amusement park where you paid for your ticket and then complain that the roller coaster is down for repairs. This is being invited into the park before it’s open and watching them build the rides, and maybe they’ll ask if you want to try it out because they think they finally have that loop fixed so you won’t go plummeting to your death. Buckle up.

In software development, “beta” means a stage of incomplete, evolving software that, with some help from additional testers, the creators then build, rebuild, and fix in real-time before it’s showtime. In console gaming, “beta” has been co-opted by marketers to mean “free demo that you tell your friends you got to try, and then that makes you both want the game more when it comes out.” That’s not this. When someone like Chacko Sonny says “this is literally a real beta,” I don’t think people understand what it actually means. It means you fix problems, in real-time, while everybody is watching. And it means you move at whatever pace the project dictates.

I have never built anything the size of Elite — and I feel pretty certain that the gamers screaming “I want it now!” have not either — but I was there to witness the ugly, horrifying birth of the content management system that powered GamesRadar. That software was built software from scratch too. Every day something new went wrong…for about seven months. One freshly fixed part would break another working part. It was amazingly difficult, and that was a closed system built for one purpose. Elite is several magnitudes more complicated, as it solicits live player data reporting in real time, linking multiple open and closed systems…one of which endured the biggest data security breach the industry has ever seen, which did complicate things for the Elite developers. I have trouble fathoming just how herculean this task is.

The Elite beta is not about favoritism, and it never was. It’s about getting as many things right with Elite as possible before the November launch. That is Beachhead’s sole goal. If you signed up to participate in the beta, it is your goal as well.

So, by all means, get in there, monkey around, and report back to the team on what you find. But in the meantime, on behalf of nobody but myself, it would be really nice if you got off Beachhead’s asses for just one second and let them do their jobs without shoving your sense of entitlement down their throats. Thanks.

  • Kastro187420

    It’s not a sense of entitlement that people get pissed at companies like Activision. It’s a lack of communication and respect for anything beyond the Xbox. It’s no secret to anyone these days that it’s favored. Let’s be honest about this too. Look at Black Ops for the PS3, and compare that to the 360.

    The PS3 version was BARELY functional in regards to the MP during the first few weeks of release. Even today it suffers really badly from frame rate issues and other connection related problems.

     Now compare that to the PS3 Beta for Elite. The last thing we heard was that they had to delay it because of the outage… nearly 3 months ago. Then they decide to just remove all reference to it and refuse to answer any sort of question concerning the PS3 version.

    OF COURSE people are going to be pissed. It’s hard to see from your point of view because you work for the company. But for someone who can’t just dial a number and get information, it’s exceedingly frustrating to deal with a company who only really cares for one system, and to be the other system that constantly gets shafted in terms of quality.

    Not to mention, when we’re the ones putting money in their pockets, I think we all have a little right to vent our frustrations at being ignored.

  • http://twitter.com/Auptyk Justin

    This is my complaint as well, referring to the PC. Dan keeps referring to his blog post… that’s over a month old. I have read it about 3 times, there has never been updates since then and the game is out in less than two months. 

    At this point they still can’t say, “The expected features are thus… and because of Dedi Servers you don’t get the following”? I don’t buy that. You can’t be 6 weeks away from launch and have no idea what you are doing with a program like that. 

    I am ok with not getting everything the console versions get, I get the difficulties and the hurdles. But the lack of communication is the one thing that bothers me.

  • Anonymous

    I agree with Dan here. Stop complaint so much. The PS3 version is not ‘barely playable’. I don’t love it, but that’s because I prefer Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty. But on the matter of Elite, I received my email yesterday and the site seems great. And it IS a beta. As long as it was available by 11/8/11 I would be fine.

  • Kastro187420

     At the moment it isn’t terrible, but during the first few weeks the game was out, there were constant system lock-ups, infinite loading loops, match-making was even worse, and the frame-rate would CONSTANTLY drop down.

    They eventually got it going, but it clearly showed a lack of support and testing for our version. Vahn himself had to spend a good month just with the PS3 community resolving the issues.

    Complaints only happen due to incompetence either through development, or through communication. In this case, the complaints stem from the development, but grew because of the lack of communication.

    I’m not hating on Dan himself, but Activision/Beach Head as a whole. There simply needs to be better, open, communication. Until there is, nobody should act surprised when people start getting annoyed and venting it.

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    Sounds like you are talking about one of the games, not Elite…so I’m not sure we agree because I don’t know what you think I said that I probably didn’t say. :)

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    I see the point of view, Kastro. I absolutely don’t support it or believe in it — not because I work at the company, but because I am considering other factors. 

    - I understand how betas work — slowly, methodically, with a clear path but a readiness to stop at any time as necessary to fix things as you go. That’s a beta, so I went in with realistic expectations. Again, applying my previous experience with software being developed as it’s being used, that makes sense to me. - I understand why you don’t want a crapton of data from multiple systems at one time, and seeing a few bumps along the way during the 360 phase has made that very clear. People who have not yet been in the beta have not noticed the things that have been working, then not working, then working again. It’s the nature of the beats, and I absolutely do not blame the team for not taking more headaches on until they were ready to handle them. One step at a time. That makes sense to me. - I understand that a major security breach — the biggest in gaming’s history — taking place in the middle of Elite’s development is going to have ripple effects on a project in development where the SOLE COMPONENT is data security. That makes sense to me, even if I don’t have radical transparency on what those issues might be. Just because they are not telling us the nitty-gritty of how they do their job does not mean they are trying to dupe us. PS3, 360, and PC all had rough patches, especially at the beginning. That is why Treyarch solicited feedback, kept people up to date, and patched things as quickly as they could. Proof: http://oneofswords.com/2010/12/black-ops-patch-update-status-reports/ You absolutely must accept that games, no matter how popular or big or who published them or on what platform, are going to have issues. They are going to need patches, they are going to need tuning and tweaking and improvements along the way. And that means, in ways big or small, you are going to be inconvenienced. The more you deny that games are not perfect, the more you will hate gaming. Accept it and move on — and thank the developers to fix the problems as soon as they can. I also understand that PS3 players think they are being persecuted, and I am telling you they are not. There’s a biz deal for an exclusive DLC window; that has no bearing on demanding access to the beta, yet I believe people are using it as an irrelevant element in their arguments here. I understand more than what you think I do. I am wondering why more people are not understanding these factors I’ve listed, and considering them before they speak up in an angry or entitled manner. What’s more, I would say this EXACT same thing if PS3 had gotten in first and 360 owners had to wait. This is not about consoles; this is about entitlement. This is about a select group of vocal, immature gamers wanting things their way, rather than accepting the way the world of gaming — development, business, and consumption — actually works. They do not want equality between platforms; they want preferential treatment. They want it first, they want it better than anyone else, and they want it now. And that’s a childish attitude that is not restricted to PS3, 360, PC, DS, or any other platform you can name. I am expecting a backlash on the GoldenEye PS3 Hugo Drax exclusivity from 360 players. Guess what I will tell them?What’s more, I absolutely do NOT agree with your comment about “we pay our money for this” here. If you buy a game and the game is not to your liking, then you have cause to complain (though I think you’d be better off just selling it and moving on to something you like more). But Elite’s going to be free, and Elite’s beta — which is the point of this article — is free. If someone charged you for beta access, then you need to report that as fraud — no joke. But “I paid my money, so I get to complain?” No — not for Elite. Not for this.

    If you have a larger complaint outside of the Elite beta discussion that I’m offering, I suggest you resolve it with what you buy and what you play from now on. That might mean missing out on major games, but you have to do what you feel is going to bring you maximum enjoyment. 

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    One thing I’ve found is that if they don’t have an answer yet, they can’t say anything. There really is a point in time when saying nothing is better than clouding the message. They know that PC gamers want a straight answer; I think if they give a partial answer, or an unclear/wishy-washy answer, that it would make things worse. I am betting they are just waiting until they can say “Here is the plan” with some confidence.

    Absolutely, it’s frustrating to wait and hear nothing. But I do suspect it’s the best path in a case like this — especially when you know that every media site, pro and fan, is going to repeat what you say. 

    That’s why I keep referring to the old blog post: It’s there because it’s permanent. It’s there because it’s the last solid thing I know.

  • Akumahito

    I am very excited about Elite and want to give it a try however.  When I try to link my PS3 account to the Elite website I just get “Your account information could not be verified”
    I am certain my PS3 user name and password are right, and I’ve asked about it but no one gives me a straight answer as to how to fix it.  I’ve been told that you can create a new PS3 account or user but I dont really want to do that as I’ve also read that people who have played past editions of the game may get some sort of small reward, quite frustrating.
    I am just curious if anyone else has had this problem or knows what to do.

  • http://twitter.com/FeverClan Fever Clan

    I have to say I agree with the issues being expressed with the ps3 version of black ops.  The lag, party support, and matchmaking were some of the worst I’ve ever seen with a ps3 launch.  Additionally, I still can’t play that game lag-free to this day and the hit detection has always felt way off compared to other call of duty games, including treyarch’s own WaW (which was at least playable).  All these issues are ones that I never had in mw2, so I think I deserve to be a little miffed when a previous release is better than a newer one purely because of connection issues.

    At this point, I think us PS3 gamers deserve to feel a bit slighted when it comes to support after launch.

  • http://twitter.com/adamwan1989 Adam Miller

    oops, wrong account, oh well

  • http://twitter.com/adamwan1989 Adam Miller

    Also, I was expecting to have stats from all the call of duty games through elite.  Is that the plan or is that just not possible?  I would think it would be since there’s built-in stat tracking on all the games, maybe just not as detailed as black ops’ stats.

  • Kastro187420

    Believe it or not, I understand how Betas work aswell. My Complaint has never been simply “They got it and we didn’t.”. You can choose to see it that way, but we both know it would be wrong.

    My complaint from the start has been the lack of communication and the preferential treatment to the 360. It goes well beyond the business deal. I use Black Ops as an example because it’s the best example yet. The other systems had some issues yes, but unless you played on PS3 during the launch period, you’re really underestimating just how bad it was for us. There’s a reason why he sat in the PS3 forum for nearly a month, as opposed to the other forums. THEY didn’t need it as badly as we did.

    I myself have done Beta Testing, aswell as development. I’ve been on both sides. I used to do some programming for an online game. I built the support center for it from the ground up myself, in the span of 1 day. The game may not have serviced millions of people, but the basic principles were the same. It’s possible to both work, and give updates while doing so.

    In Regards to Security Issues and the PSN Being down, I can see how that’s going to cause a few “ripples”. What I can’t see is how that relates to them stone-walling the PS3 Community and refusing even a reassurance that we weren’t forgotten or ignored. Nobody is asking for a daily source code update here. What we, the PS3 Community were asking for, was simply some kind of information as to what was going on. Especially after the removal of any information relating to it.

    Your idea that this is all about the childish perception of entitlement couldn’t be more flawed. There might be a few bad apples out there, but the majority of us actually DO want equality. But that’s easy to miss when you’re not the one being crapped on. Simply go to the PS3 Forums on the Black Ops website. The majority of complaints in regards to the deals with activision aren’t a “We want more than them.”, they’re “We want to be treated equally.”.

    The same holds true for Elite, and anything else Activision intends on releasing. Not even just Activision, but EA, and the various other publishers and developers. To say that equality = entitlement is just ridiculous.

    What we are entitled to is equal treatment in development and the ability to voice our concerns and complaints. If that’s too much to ask for, then Activision shouldn’t be surprised when people stop supporting the only remaining franchise they have left.

    And if you don’t think people are paying for Elite, I’d go have a talk with the people who bought the Hardened/Prestige Editions of MW3. They might have something to say about that.

    And for what it’s worth, I decided long ago that I wasn’t going to be buying a future CoD title as long as Activision intends to just sit on it’s billion dollar franchise and not provide the proper suport the title deserves, and refuses to promote equality amongst ALL systems.

  • http://twitter.com/thalas28 Antonio Ferreira

    I am the only one who received a invite but i can’t activate it?

  • http://twitter.com/Auptyk Justin

    I hear what you are saying and agree with “don’t muddy the waters” but in that case, this late in development… well you can see how the other platforms start to feel a little left out… 

    I know that Microsoft pays Activision money to have favoritism to their platform. I get it, business is business, gaming industry or not. I don’t have a problem with that. But when you build a game multi-platform, but then create a service that is only ready for 1 at game launch. You are going to get grief over it. 

    I would argue that the grief you receive (as long as it is calm, and not personal attacks or poo flinging) is fair in this instance.  This release date and the platforms it was to be supporting did not sneak up on them… CoD comes this way the same week every year. 

    I guess the issue for me is “they” (whoever that may be) say they care about PC development… “they” say they are PC gamers, etc… but when it comes to action, well, its just not there. Even if it was just “Listen, CoD is a console first title, you PC guys are only 2-3 million strong… we will get to you when we get to you” at least I KNOW where I stand and what to expect. I would be happy. 

    CoD is a great game, I play it exclusively on the PC and have done so since CoD4. Every CoD has been the best so far, but the misdirection, the lack of communication bothers us. We had to wait 2 years before Robert Bowling did his interview with reddit explaining the controversial decisions on PC surrounding MW2… not cool. 

    Which I think is why there is so much trolling with BF3, as you have EA/DICE feeding the PC crowd all sorts of info, demoing on PC etc etc… Not to mention the info they have given to all the consoles and they have demo’d with every console.

    …but Battlefield is boring so who cares. lol

    /This is not an attack on you, Beachhead or Activision by any means, its meant as constructive voicing of concerns. I have tried to make sure that this is an neutral sounding as possible since emotion can be mis-read. 

    I really appreciate your willingness to respond to the community here and on Twitter and field these discussions.

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    Totally valid, and yet still totally irrelevant to everything I wrote in the main article. I’m talking about the Elite beta; you are bringing in something that does not apply to the Elite beta.

    I’m sorry, you can’t muddy the waters, even if you have a legitimate concern for another place and time.

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    No, sorry — only Black Ops and MW3 (and future games) are going to be supported. It is possible that they might be able to work in older games, but Black Ops and MW3 were both built knowing Elite was secretly in development alongside them; I am not expecting that they will go back to revise the older games to work with Elite, as there’s plenty of work to do for the current games. 

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    Okay, so maybe I have misunderstood — the issue is more than you were not given more information along the way. I understand that frustration, but as I said in another response, if they do not have the information you want to hear, can you really blame them for not answering? The last thing they said was “we hope it will be soon, we’ll give you news as soon as we can.” That’s exactly what happened — the only difference is, you wanted it to happen faster. That can’t be helped. 

    When it comes to GAME PERFORMANCE, yes, people want and should get equality. I am absolutely on your side with that. I can’t control it because I don’t make games for a living and do not understand the inherent challenges of making the hardware do what you want it to do. But you should get the best experience possible for your money — absolutely. 

    However, here’s my main point: This post is not about game performance. This post is about people asking about the Elite beta and its timing — nothing more than that. The realities of beta testing that you understand were not accepted by the people making the demands to be let in. (And I was not talking about the majority of people; please do not suggest that I was.) 

    So it’s not that the game performance concerns are not valid, but responding to an Elite beta post with those comments does not make sense, and it will not get you anywhere. There is, however, an official forum for Black Ops which the developers read, and that’s where they have been posting updates on what is being fixed. If you are bothered by those issues, post there and you have a much better chance of doing good. But I guarantee you that the gang from Treyarch is not looking for Black Ops performance feedback in the comments on a post about the Elite beta. 

    Finally, if you have decided that you are not buying Call of Duty games — a totally valid option that I respect as a person who also spends his money on games — why on earth did you bother to post about it here? Why bother, if you no longer have an emotional or financial investment in this? 

  • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

    Microsoft pays Activision for an exclusive window of DLC availability. Anything else you’re alleging is going to need some evidence behind it, because I don’t like dark conspiracies that “everybody knows” but nobody can prove. I know from talking to developers over the years that Microsoft provides a robust toolset — they want devs to like the platform. And devs like the platform so they want to work on it as a primary platform. I always feel that’s the X factor in whether or not a hardware platform succeeds, marketing and branding be damned. 

    As far as I know, Elite will be ready for 360 and PS3 at launch; I have not heard any plans to the contrary. PC was spoken about several weeks back, as you noted, but…well, I would suggest it would be worse to hear it now. And you’re right that the release date is not a surprise, but if you just don’t have an answer to some of the problems you encounter while you build it, you have to blink and say “we are figuring out how to do this.” You don’t send the space shuttle up unless everything is right; you scrub the launch and say “we’ll get back to you, but it’s not like we’re NEVER launching into space just because we need to fix some stuff.” So, you know, I want people to see this for what it is: an evolving platform. 

    Also, while honest answers are always to be respected, I cannot imagine the storm that would come from any publisher saying “We think less of you than the other platforms.” If they didn’t feel it was worth it, wouldn’t they just not make the game for that platform? The last Transformers game didn’t have a PC version; I have to believe they did not think there would be an audience for it there. I would expect that the NPD numbers show that consoles are moving more units of CoD than PC, but again, with Elite’s PC support, it’s not a question of the install base, but of the data and its security. They just need to figure out how to make that very different platform work right. 

    And hey, thanks, I’m not taking it personally, don’t worry, I appreciate the spirited conversation and the lack of emotionally charged words that incite flamewars. 

  • Kastro187420

     These first 3 paragraphs are in regards to the Elite Beta (and why game performance was brought up), the remainder is in regards to various other things mentioned:

    The reason I bring up Game Performance during the discussion is to highlight the track record of the PS3 getting “the shaft” when it comes to Call of Duty in general. Call of Duty Elite is part of Call of Duty, and because it’s an Activision product, it’s going to be subject to the same level of bias that everything else CoD related has been… and that is, put the 360 first, and PS3 after, and then the PC if there is any time left.

    The fact that no one from activision or who works under them as a developer (be it Treyarch/IW/Beach Head) was willing to answer anything about it, or even keep us updated beyond a “it’ll come when it comes” comment is where the frustrations are at. It shows me that unfortunately, they haven’t learned anything and are going to continue the same way.

    The bottom line is, Actions speak louder than words. It’s unfortunate that the actions (or lack of) of Activision have said repeatedly to the community that their primary focus is for the 360.

    —-

    In regards to not buying another Call of Duty title, if you read further into that paragraph I mention I won’t buy one “as long as activision continues to neglect giving the title the support it deserves.”. What I’m talking about is this:

    1) 2-3 Year Development Cycle. The reason they need to constantly put out a title EVERY Year is because they’re going for quantity instead of quality. To make my point, compare Call of Duty 4 to Modern Warfare 2. The reason people still refer to CoD4 as an amazing title is because they went for QUALITY, prior to learning CoD would become a cash-cow. It was developed to be enjoyed for a long period.. These days, CoD is developed so that it can maybe last a year.

    2) A Public Beta (a REAL beta, not demo) to find issues. The company has proven time and again that their QA, to put it bluntly, fails. Very basic issues that should’ve been caught never are. Basic things like in MW2, suppressors not working on certain weapons. In Black Ops, the PS3 issues.

    3) Dedicated Servers across ALL platforms. If EA/DICE can do so for their series which generates less revenue, there is no a reason a multi-BILLION dollar company can’t other than they simply don’t want to put the money out there because it’ll take from their profits.

    If they want my future business, they simply need to do what any half-decent company does, and do justice to a game.

    So the reason I come on here and post, and the reason I still utilize the forums (despite the fact that Treyarch has pretty much abandoned it for communication, twitter is now their platform of choice), is because I want to stress these points and them out there.

    Whether it’s about Call of Duty Elite (like this blog post), or activision in general. Once enough people start making a big enough fuss about things, it’s going to look poorly on them to ignore it.

    I genuinely WANT to enjoy Call of Duty. But I find it hard to do so when it’s treated like crap and only one platform ever gets attention put towards it. The rest, they try to just Copy/Paste.

  • Garcia590

    Just keep on trying i got this message the first time around… That might be the reason https://store.playstation.com/accounts/register/beginNewAccountRegistrationFlow.action

  • http://twitter.com/adamwan1989 Adam Miller

    ah, thanks for the clarification

  • http://twitter.com/adamwan1989 Adam Miller

    agreed, the comment was irrelevant but was relevant in the context of the other comments, however irrelevant those may have been :).  Regardless, I just want to see the best game (and service in terms of Elite) that can be made, especially when black ops was a let down.  I did some exploring and did find some cool things.  Do you know anything additional that’s planned for the improve (besides a single video for each gun) and competition sections (especially clan support)?

  • necroXephon

    I also agree with Dan. This argument should have never arose but I can at least give some advice. I am a 360 user and a PS3 user. I’ve played on both. I’ve not had problems on either that were too unbearable. So… Here it is: If you don’t like it, just get an xbox. Jasper units aren’t that pricey anymore.

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