New Closed Beta (Feb 16)

[DCMetro34 577]

 

It was a strange "closed" beta/demo, like the new one is. You could be elected by opting in to the beta, you could win one of the thousand of keys handed out to marketing partners or magazines but for an easy sure spot in the beta just simply pre-order the game to get in (like in the new beta). There was nothing closed about it. Everyone could get in, if they wanted.

The pre-order gets you into the second (the upcoming) beta. This wasn't offered for the first beta, was it?

First beta had this too, i.e. every pre-order on amazon came with a beta code.

 

I was wondering why they would do this at first, but then I came to my realization.

 

If they let people who are already going to buy the game into the beta, it equals more favorable reviews, right?  Right.

[RyanMorgan95 144]

Still no Mac support..

No, it's just the Beta is PC only, because most players will be on PC so having Mac players on too wouldn't have a significant impact on server load for this "stress testing" Beta. You'll be getting your Simcity for Mac in "Spring", don't you worry.

[JaceTwice 115]

I was wondering why they would do this at first, but then I came to my realization.

 

If they let people who are already going to buy the game into the beta, it equals more favorable reviews, right?  Right.

Not neccecarily if the people here who cancelled their pre-orders because of the first beta are to be belived.

[nhgriffith 179]

Still no Mac support..

The Mac release date is listed as "Spring."

Spring is March, April, May, and possibly June.

The first PC Beta was at the end of January. Essentially, 5 weeks before the game released. Moreover, the beta is designed to stress test servers as well as find and fix bugs. So, first off, you don't really need a Mac beta to do these things. Any bugs are generally going to be logic errors, not syntax errors, and syntax will be the only difference between the Mac and Windows versions of the code.

But anyway, they haven't even announced a release date for the Mac version... which means the Mac version isn't even close to ready enough for a beta test. If the Mac's release date ends up being early May, then IF they do a Mac beta and it's on the same sort of time scale as the Windows version, then the Mac beta would be around late March (and mid-April).

[macvirt 361]

Still no Mac support..

No, it's just the Beta is PC only, because most players will be on PC so having Mac players on too wouldn't have a significant impact on server load for this "stress testing" Beta. You'll be getting your Simcity for Mac in "Spring", don't you worry.

 

Complete with the dependancy of Origin, which is now releases also for Mac .... 

[RicoSuave 0]

If I pre-order now, as a pc user and to strictly join the beta program, can that license transfer to a mac license once the mac version releases or shall i have to purchase an additional license?