Street Fighter V‘s first beta test didn’t get off to a particularly great start last month. As soon as the servers went live, it became quickly apparent that they couldn’t handle the intense strain of so many people logging in at once. Hundreds of users reported a total inability to even access the beta, and Capcom were forced to shut the service down entirely.
Ever since that date, Capcom have been quietly opening the servers at select times for small numbers of people to stress test it on a smaller scale. Now, it seems the developer have reached a point where they’ve found an answer to previous problems though, as they’re formally opening the servers from 4pm BST today until midnight, and again the following day.
The test is strictly for those living in Europe, however. For North America and Asia, Capcom have stated that the two continents will be grouped together for a subsequent stress test set to take place after the European one.
Assuming all goes well for both tests, we may be seeing the return of a proper Beta period some time in the near future. There’s also been talk that Capcom will be adding both Ken Masters and newcomer Necalli to the Street Fighter V beta as compensation for the downtime, but we’ll just have to wait and see if that comes to fruition