Fans of the Street Fighter series are no doubt excited for SSFIITHDR*. Hell, I can’t get enough of SSFIITHDR – just the mention of SSFIITHDR gets me excited. It was announced a week ago that anyone who downloads Capcom’s upcoming downloadable title, Commando 3, would get a chance to play the beta for SSFIITHDR before anyone else. This was later clarified as an Xbox Live only offer, with PS3 fans left out in the cold.

In an angry, angst filled forum topic on Capcom’s official website, a forum administrator laid out the reasons for this impossibility. They are as follows:

1. We are resource constrained. This project already has gone over the original budget (we had a new budget approved to accomodate our dedication to its quality and the new features... there were even a few we wanted to do that had to get cut in the end... more on that in a post mortem blog or something). Anyway, we wanted to do a beta to test the new network features but even if it were possible for Sony to do, it would require 3 submissions (US, Europe, Asia/Japan) to reach the same global audience we can with MS in a single test and global submission.

2. We treat the PS3 extremely seriously. To date, we are still the only third party publisher doing cross platform, simultaneous digital releases (still working on the global simultaneous, but see the issues above on multiple submissions per territory as an issue). Believe it or not, this is not easy and to suggest we aren't treating the PS3 as important would be ignorant of what we're doing for it.

3. In my ideal world of worlds, we would have done a beta on each. That said, the effort and time (not to mention money) that would have taken, if it even could be done, probably would have pushed the project back another few months on our side. I suspect you guys would still like to play this title in this calendar year.

4. The beta for 360 will absolutely help the PS3. There is code parity across the two and any issues found in 360 will be fixed in PS3. So while PS3 owners won't be able to participate in the beta, they will still benefit in the finished product.

5. Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 will be an excellent title on PS3. The lack of a bonus beta doesn't make it not worth its asking price.

6. When you show me someone running a cross platform beta... I'll be impressed, because that's a hell of an investment.

All of this makes sense, but I didn’t know that the game was over budget. One would think taking a game from fifteen years ago and remaking the sprites would be an easy journey. It also brings up the point that this isn’t a demo - it is a beta. Beta is for making the game better on the whole, so gamers shouldn’t act like they are being left out of anything other then being volunteer game testers.

We will bring more information about SSFIITHDR beta as it arrives.

*Super Street Fighter II HD Remix 

Related Articles:

Get Street Fighting Early

Bionic Commando ReArmed Trailer Debuts

Associated Press Releases the Worst of 2007