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A lot of teams I speak with think of large-scale playtests as a purely technical stress test. But from our experience, you can get way more value out of them than just server telemetry. A single large-scale test can serve multiple goals at once: 1) Validate retention rates over multiple days before opening the doors to the public 2) A/B test marketing assets like key art, trailers, or landing page messaging with real target players 3) Build an active core community by turning early playtesters into invested brand advocates 4) Stress test server architecture and catch game-breaking bugs under peak concurrency While there's usually one primary objective for a test, tracking secondary metrics helps you maximize the ROI of the entire effort. But getting thousands of players pre-screened, distributed, and moderated in one go is a massive logistical burden. We help some of the biggest publishers and studios worldwide run these types of tests from start to finish. So if you're looking to test KPIs like retention but don't want your team tied up in administrative drag, send me a message and let's see how we can help 😁

Launching a multiplayer game without real-world stress testing is a gamble that way too many studios take. Server infrastructure might hold up in simulated internal tests, but live concurrency is unpredictable. When thousands of players log in simultaneously on day one, unexpected bottlenecks break matchmaking, crash servers and trigger avoidable refund spikes and bad reviews. That is why testing in a controlled yet realistic environment before launch is essential. Sloclap tackled this brilliantly for Rematch. Ahead of release, we helped their team run 5 large-scale stress tests involving over 22,000 total participants. Across those tests, we collected over 140,000 data points, combining telemetry with live player feedback. That data gave Sloclap visibility to make some pre-launch adjustments, like improving lobby queue stability and smoothing out some UI elements. If you need help organizing a large-scale stress test but don't know where to start, or just want to take the logistical heavy lifting off your team's hands, send me a message and let's see how we can collab on it. P.S. If you want to learn more about how we helped Rematch, you can do so here:

It's that time of the year again... 👀 Gamescom is right around the corner and honestly, it’s one of my favorite events of the year. It’s always a pleasure catching up with old friends, meeting new people and chatting with studios who want to build better player experiences. Plus, it’s always great to check out some new games whenever I get the chance 😁 We're also offering 10% off all our services to anyone who meets us in person during the event. If you’re going to be around, send me a quick message and let's set something up!

I have some news to share! I'll be attending this year's gamescom and will be in Cologne with the Antidote team. I'm really looking forward to catching up with old friends, meeting our partners and hopefully getting to know some new people along the way. As a little bonus, we're offering 10% off all Antidote services to anyone who meets us during the event. But more than anything, I'm looking forward to the conversations 😄 If you're going to be around and fancy grabbing a coffee, just send me a message and we can organise something See you in Cologne!

"How do you guys help organize stress tests?" It’s a question I'm often asked when we’re chatting with studios about their upcoming launches. Everyone knows that 'day one' server issues or unexpected tech bugs can overshadow a great release, but setting up a proper environment to catch those issues is usually a huge logistical headache. We recently released a guide in which our Lead UX Researcher, Joan Costa, explains how we approach this at Antidote. He breaks down: - Why these tests are so critical for preventing post-launch chaos - How we organize them to simulate real-world conditions - Some real examples of how different studios have used these tests to prepare for launch Give it a read, you might find it useful for your next test or it might just give you a better idea of how we handle them behind the scenes 😁 As always, if you're planning a test and need a hand with the recruitment or logistics, just shoot me a message! https://lnkd.in/ePk2JaiY

Aliens working in a petrol station?! 👽⛽ Last month, Roadside Research officially launched into Early Access and the reception has been amazing, with 1,700+ reviews with an 86% positive rating on Steam! I want to send a huge congratulations to the teams at Cybernetic Walrus and Oro Interactive. It's been a pleasure helping them with the playtesting process during their early stages. The team understands the importance of building alongside their community. We helped them set up FTUE and concept validation studies to gather insights from their target audience while the game was still in development. The feedback they collected was critical, as the team mentioned that these early tests were a major factor in the demo's popularity, as they were able to implement changes players wanted to see. I always love hearing feedback like this. It's a perfect example of how testing with your audience early on significantly increases your chances of success. Again, huge congratulations to everyone involved 🥳