Is this really necessary? Tom Clancy's The Division is riding high on pre-order charts, has a ton of marketing muscle behind it, and is clearly going to be a very popular game, so we're not sure why publisher Ubisoft is desperate for it to break records. Alas, it's had its PR team blast out some big news today: the game's beta is the "biggest ever for a new game brand on current generation platforms". Presumably it's the most played beta enjoyed in conjunction with stuffed crust pepperoni pizza on a Friday night in February 2016, too.
An incredible 6.4 million people tested out the open world shooter, which is more than the 4.6 million that Destiny attracted in 2014. Does any of this really matter? No, but here are some more stats for you: participants spent an average of five hours with the beta, over 50 per cent went rogue in the Dark Zone, and a total of 63 million items were extracted. Now we can all get on with our day safe in the knowledge that The Division is officially a Big Deal™.
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One would hope it was bigger than Destiny given that install bases have doubled since then.
I am sure I am not the only one that will download any open beta game since there are no more demos...
But to be honest, the open beta made me thinking to buy it.
@DominicanGlory More or less what I thought.
"Does any of this really matter? No"
I kinda feel like it does matter. yes, this doesn't equal sales but it's clearly shows a ton of people are interested in the game.
There's been a lot of mediocre articles about The Division since the beta, though, so those figures might not relate to sales figures. The beta was pretty much a demo; it doesn't guarantee that people will buy it in the same numbers. Will be interesting to see how it does when it launches, though.
@wittypixel its free stuff. people download free stuff, not necessarily because they're interested in it.
Considering that Destiny needed people to sign up and as someone has said the install base has doubled. It's also risky that The Division is coming out two weeks after Far Cry, unless of course there doing it before the end of the fiscal year.
@scollurio yes but average time played speaks a lot on the game too. basically people actually spent a good amount of time with it.
The beta convinced me to pick it up, although the enemy AI could use some fine tuning the 2nd level boss humped a steel beam unendingly until I put him out of his misery.
The beta wins my record for the dulliest tutorial. Then the record for the dulliest opening section after the tutorial. I believe it also holds the record for me quiting because the game was dull as dish water.
I enjoyed the beta. I hope with the full game there are more weapons worth using as a main than just assault rifles & sniper rifles though. Choice was pretty limited from what I saw.
So is that 6.4m people who found it to be nothing more than a competent 3rd person shooter in a dismal, near-empty world filled only with complete uninspiring loot and unimaginative enemies who attack you for no real reason, making you reciprocate with similar lack of motive.
I played the beta and feel like I've already seen everything it has to offer apart from the same items with bigger numbers.
@LieutenantFatman the game definitely seems to be weighted towards those types of weapons, but I will say yesterday one of the dz checkpoints sold a modified smg (uzi I just can't remember it's exact name) that pushed the yellow liberator to secondary position. With my build it had over 5600 dps and just decimated everything. My friends and I absolutely loved both betas, can't wait for the 8th.
@adf86 I reckon they're doing that to get both games out before the fiscal year ends. I think Assassin's Creed Syndicate has sold lower than expected, and they need both out in this window to make up for it.
@BigDaddyT0101 Sounds pretty cool. I'm hoping there will be a few more options such as shotguns that do huge damage up close, close combat weapons, maybe duel wield pistols? Bigger weapons that restrict movement. Mix it up for different play styles to keep things interesting.
I enjoyed the beta but I might wait for reviews before a purchase to see if it stands up as a decent game played strictly solo. I hope the Dark Zone is completely optional too and you're not forced there for story missions.
After almost an hour it made me realize it'll suffer from the same number, if not more, problems that Destiny had. Paaass.
Nonsense, I played the beta and cancelled my pre order. It's not appealing to me anymore unfortunately. I believe the 'story' in Destiny was superior to this, that says it all.
@ApostateMage dark zone is pvp only, also, story missions? I only completed one main mission and a couple of side missions but from what I endured there wasn't really a story being told, just jumbled rubbish
The beta won me. I passed from "looks like destiny all over again" to "looks like how destiny should have been...".
The loot is frequent, random and not pointless (not like in destiny: at low level every gun looks and shoots the same, at high level only exotics with highest light matters). Modding the weapons is fun and really change the gunplay style. You are not bound to 3 stupid, almost equal, static classes. You can experiment your build and switch perks on fly (foggy-snowy day? Take your sniper rifle and pulse perk for being invisible killer). DZ is surprisingly dynamic, as PvPvE area, me and my buddies passed from deatmatch to team deathmatch to zone control to all vs 1 to all vs bots. Extraction zone is a great mechanic that build up tension among players. The gunplay is very tactical, you can equip your team with different weapons (LMG for suppression fire, shotguns for closing gap, sniper for recon). You can really apply squad combat tactics to this game. You can grind the same mission for better, guaranteed loot (not like in destiny where story missions and patrols are useless).
My only concern is a general emptyness of the map. I hope they add more random encounters/factions war. But Dev said the stripped down the beta, so I am positive. Other issue is that the balance in the rogue mechanic. DZ can be a annoying mess or a boring friendly zone according to the oercentage of rogue agents at time. Devs have to fight the right point where turning rogue is good for you but risky, so a balance is guaranteed
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi there was intentionally no story in the beta... How can you judge it with 2 "story" missions that essentially revolved about estabilishing you base camp? It is a beta....
I can see why some would like his game. I gave the beta a go and it was okay, but certainly geared towards online. I don't have the time to join the race to the top to compete in high level raids (pretty sure that's what the end game content is). Will stick with Earth Defence Force for my online blasting needs.
@arnoldlayne83 as I understood it most of the game relates to the expansion of your Base Camp, if there is a story I'd like to know what it is, it might help sales to know?
Really enjoyed the beta, despite the empty streets and dumb AI. Goons are always going to be bullet sponges in this type of game, and that's ok with me. The streets will surely not be anywhere near as empty in the main game, too; plus we only saw the initial easy areas so what do people expect?
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi the story will revolve about this quarantined NY with rival gangs fighting for control and the investigation about the virus, was it an intentional spread? Sure, base building is important because the levelling is separated among guns, equipment and perks(the latter is the base related one).
Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today...
@arnoldlayne83 hopefully they do pull a decent story out of the bag because I want to like this game but so far I don't see it happening
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi me too. But I have the feeling we have seen a very small percentage of the whole game... Have you seen how many menus and base areas were locked?
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