How will the Killzone 2 Servers Hold up?
Posted on 21. Feb, 2009 by bakerboy in Real Talk with the HipHopGamer
Let me preface this by saying that you would be hard pressed to find anyone that is anticipating the launch of Killzone 2 more than me. But based on my history with Sony,(and game launches in general) I can’t help but to anticipate being left with nothing to do but wait for the servers to be fixed next weekend. Call me a pessimist if you want, but based on my past experiences, I’m only being real.
It all started for me on August 29th, 2007. After getting lucky enough to participate in the Warhawk beta, my excitement for the actual release was through the roof. My buddy and I, a fellow by the name of CastleKingSide, had completely run amuck in the beta by completely demolishing everyone we faced. So of course we were absolutely stoked upon the release of the actual game. It all started off fine, you know business as usual. That first night we logged about 7 hours of play and were sure that when we woke up the next day our names would be at the top of the leaderboards. To our surprise we weren’t ranked anywhere. Not only were we not ranked, but our stats weren’t counted at all. The problem wasn’t isolated, there were reports all over the web of people’s stats not being counted, ranks were being reset etc. This whole Warhawk debacle continued for about 4 weeks until Dylan Jobe and company finally cleaned things up in late September; an entire month after the release. Many people completely lost interest in the game and sales suffered because of this. Wow Sony, just wow.
Next on my list is the release of Call of Duty 4. Everyone remembers that weekend. Everything was cool for the first day or two, but as soon as the weekend hit, deja vu. Stats not being counted, people being unable to connect to a game. Although I’m not completely sure if 360 owners encountered the same issues, this was a big deal with Playstation owners. On the other hand, I must commend Infinity Ward for promptly resolving the issue and allowing users to proceed with the fragfest the following Monday.
Third, there was the infamous release of Rainbow Six Vegas 2. All I have to say is “Wow”. This was hands down the most broken launch ever. And from my knowledge, these issues were PS3 specific. For almost 2 weeks users were completely unable to connect to anybody. I remember people trying any and everything in a desperate attempt to connect with one another. Then there was the whole anomaly with people’s faces being green when you used the face implementation feature. But that is completely separate topic in and of itself. Whether this was Sony’s or Ubisoft’s fault, it didn’t really matter. Things like this just shouldn’t happen. Once again, this debacle ruined sales for the Playstation 3 version, with many users jumping ship for the 360 version instead.
Last but not least we have Socom Confrontation. Need I say more? A highly anticipated, exclusive title that launched with more problems than one can shake a stick at. From not being able to connect to your friends, to game incapacitating lag once you were finally connected. This was coupled with the fact that may features advertised on the back of the box were completely left out. How do these issues get past quality assurance? Maybe we should email Microsoft for the answer to that last question.
Well, this is why we study history. It is a must that we learn from our past mistakes. Hopefully Sony has learned from these past mishaps and are ready to seize the moment with the Killzone 2 release. Because we all know that if this launch even resembles one of these past launches to the smallest degree, there will be a neverending media frenzy predicting the demise of Sony.
psn=ph8al
xbl gamertag=ph8al
Also Microsoft is a software company, they have more experience with things like that. Sony on the other hand has so much hardware experience that the Playstation 3… is the Playstation 3. This is why 360 has hardware problems (yes they do RROD 5 times), and Sony has a lack of software capabilities, such a voice messages.
Well the beta was a few months ago so that would give them time to fix any problems that were in the beta. Socom on the other hand had the beta right before the realease they only had 7 days to prepare the game. Basically ship the game without delay
i doubt it will have problem since the developers have got past these prob;ems and are stepping it up for the ps3 and most of they hyped ps3 exclusives have worked perfect like resistance 2 or have been fixed in a matter of days plus guerrila has worked on this game for years and has revised from beta to make it smoother so i think killzone 2 will have a good launch and if it does have issues theyle be fixed asap
nice article, keep up the work
i would take you seriously terminator, but i couldn’t understand one thing you said!
warhawk wen euro relealse its so fucking shit, master server are down, for 2 weeks.
cod4, all time of online play this (around 6 months)game works perfect, no conecction problems, only 1 day because infinity fuck euromaster.
socom… no comments of this, not relealsed in europe yet, and this game its a big shit, i don’t purchase this.
kz2, if it uses p2p code, will be work good, if masterserver not down, i think we don’t have problems whit this
Dont worry man, Killzone 2 will have dedicated servers just like resistance 1 & 2. I hate games that run on P2P servers, Games like Halo, CoD, Gears, MGO & LBP, they cause so much lag.
@Dman2000000
I played with Lexyayo in the beta. My psn=ph8al btw. I think we were all in the top 100 during the beta, but I only play now casually.
I was talking to Herman Hulst on Wednesday night. I asked the question about the servers holding up? He seemed fairly certain that they would hold up, he said that “they have been pressure tested, load tested and *something else*”(Was drunk at this stage =]). But he seemed quite confident that they wouldnt go down the first day.
@ chase, well i’d expect to get dedicated servers if im paying for the service. If I was paying for online on the PS3 I would have certainly been on their case long time ago, but I don’t so hey, what am I complaining about. Having crappy servers on the 360 would be a sin for Microsoft with paying customers so ofcourse they must make sure their servers work.
xbox 360 cod4 wasn’t server problem free…my friend had it on that weekend so i went and tried it out, my 1st time holdin a 360 control…kept havin disconnects. When r2 was released I thought the problems would be worse due to 60 player matches and had not one single problem, so that being said…i’m confident kz2 online will be flawless
Server cannot be tested before releasing a game. Beta will only test them under less than 1% load max… So, as long as they fix them quickly, I don’t mind.
I’m really curious about the fact that they do seem to release most games close to the week end though. Great for shopping, but bad for having IT guys working on the servers… (And sure enough, on the first weekend, you will get max load!)
yea, well i had cod4 on the 360 release weekend and that was no problem. and you wonder why we pay for xbox live, lol. cause we get dedicated servers that work with no lag pretty much 100% of the time for any game including release day and weekend.
Good read, I actually thought about this problem a while back. I’m pretty confident though they want all to be as smooth as possible so the servers should hold. My main concern though is that it comes out on a weekend, so we will see.
Well, I can see why the game will lag on the first few days (major lag). But since I ordered it, I’ll probably get it 2-3 days after the release. And when the online is down. It gives a a great incentive to actually PLAY the campaign.
I agree with this article. I DO expect to not play the multiplayer portion correctly for some time. MGS4 was kinda crazy with the long ass update downloads, Warhawk- I couldn’t get it to work for some time, LBP had it’s issues, UT3 was nasty when it first hit, and Socom just plain pissed me off. Fun games regardless of the initial server troubles. But, yes, I do expect something to go wrong.
I’m real cool with LexYayo from Games on Smash. I don’t know how nice you and your boy was HHG, but we was ranked in the tops in the beta. I haven’t played it in a LONG time, but if you play it still or anything hit me up. Same PSN name. I also think that the KZ2 servers will F*(* up like almost all other shooters on PS3(most notably Socom). Also, love what you doing with what God gave you on informing us and being real about the EXPENSIVE video games.
This is one area where the PS3 has a bad reputation. I remember getting RSV2 (my beloved 360 was in the “shop” again for repairs) for the PS3. I remember many weeks of not being able to connect in multiplayer. Lucky for Ubisoft, the single-player campaign kept me busy and earning XP while they repaired it. But that left me with a very sour view of the PSN. PSN is free, and you get what you pay for. Keep that in mind.
And sad to say, Killzone 2 is going to have all sorts of server/stats problems too. Seems like every PS3 game with any popularity does.
when i watched the bravo special they a massive server room in an old bank vault so i think it will be alright *touch wood*
beta*
for the game in the beat.(Killzone 2)
for real. WHAT ARE BETA’S FOR. To try an make things run smoothly by when the full game comes out.
I didnt recall any problems for in the beta.
If multiplayer acts up, and you know it will, just play the single player. Sony is really good about getting these problems fixed anyway so its not like we’d have to deal with a potential server downage for more than a week if that.
Here’s a reason to be an optimist Resistance 2 with it’s 60 player online along with the hundreds of other gamers playing it online at the same time was solid online since day one. The online for Killzone 2 would probably be better than their past seeing that Sony is starting to change their tactics with Killzone 2 I mean advertising so far has been stellar so maybe online would continue the trend for Sony’s change
There are a couple of high profile recent games that didn’t share these problems though..
Resistance 2, also Sony Published – had a successful multiplayer launch and tbh it’s network stuff is probably a bit more ambitious than KZ2’s (depending on what KZ2 does with stat tracking and the web side of things I guess)
And later in the year we have MAG, so I really hope Sony have been learning from their mistakes or that will be pretty disastrous launch. At least Warhawk works great now.
rainbowsix vegas 2 was a port and it had alot of problems with the unreal engine and how they modded it. xbox had problems to but the p2p system for the xbox is a lil better than sonys.
Umm, Killzone 2 servers? didn’t talk about any reason why they might or might not work. Good read however. Most new games have several problems when running on a new server. Whether it be PS3 or 360.