Ready Or Not developer Void Interactive has clarified its stance on alpha testing, after players criticised the studio for charging extra for further access in a game that’s already in early access.
In an article shared last night (January 17), Void Interactive has outlined the reasoning behind its alpha testing branch.
This is because as Ready Or Not is in early access – meaning the game has not fully launched – Void Interactive is offering a more expensive copy of the game that allows owners to access an alpha testing branch.
In the blog, Void Interactive says that it has “managed to survive and bring Ready Or Not to life thanks to our Supporters,” referring to users who buy the £61.98 ‘Supporter’ upgrade for the game.
“Currently, we wish to continue to test content in a Supporter only Alpha branch prior to launching for all players, giving us the opportunity to correct as many errors as possible. In addition to showing Supporters our appreciation for believing in and backing Ready Or Not, this allows our limited staff to more easily receive, evaluate, and assimilate feedback into the game.”
Void Interactive says the premium alpha testing area is “a much needed space to test things prior to releasing onto the live Early Access branch,” and adds that the extra testing “is invaluable for the purpose of managing our limited resources to fix game breaking or exceptionally tricky bugs”.
“We have no plans of dividing our playerbase in any way, and this brief testing period is meant to ensure when new content rolls out that it is ready to play and enjoy.”
Although Void Interactive explained why the alpha testing is necessary, the blog does not entirely touch on some player’s main issue – that joining the alpha testing environment requires a version of Ready Or Not costing £88.32 instead of just £30.99.
In a discussion under the blog, some players have shared their support for the studio’s decision, as they feel that having a limited alpha testing environment allows for higher quality results. On the other hand, many negative reviews on Steam criticise Void Interactive’s choice to give Supporter players early access to content changes.
Several of these negative reviews believe that important bug fixes – such as changes to AI – are being kept for testing for several weeks, a change they feel should be deployed to the wider playerbase as soon as possible.
“The standard version is not worth the money at this point in time and the supporter version is getting the updates and bug fixes first,” says one review, while another claims that they have “lost respect” for Void Interactive.
Earlier in the month, Void Interactive shared that more weapons and game mode options would be arriving in January.
In other news, Tilted Towers could be coming back to Fortnite according to a cryptic tweet.
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