Players anticipating the co-op horror shooter Killing Floor 3 are a little concerned about the state of the game ahead of its launch on July 24, as a recent play test a little over a week before launch required players sign a five-year non-disclosure agreement in order to participate.
The stress test occurred on Sunday during two, two-hour sessions, during which players could request access through Steam. However, the fine-print of an NDA required in order to play raised some eyebrows. As revealed in a post on Reddit, in addition to agreeing to not take screenshots or record gameplay of developer Tripwire Interactive’s upcoming shooter, players had to agree to not discuss the test for five years.
While NDAs are not unusual when playing early builds of games, the fact that the test required one when the full game is slated to launch close to a week later caught many players by surprise. It’s possible the five years-distinction was legal verbiage copied and pasted from previous, older playtests, but it still doesn’t inspire confidence.
Killing Floor 3 was originally supposed to arrive earlier this year on March 25, but was delayed just a few weeks before release. The requiring of a lengthy NDA for a playtest so close to launch has fans worried another delay could be on the way, but in a blog post about the stress test, Tripwire said it has been focused on optimizations and enacting player feedback so it can “ship a great game to fans on July 24.”
“This test is designed to help our team and partners ensure that the multiplayer environment stays as stable as possible at launch,” Tripwire states.
Tripwire has already laid out some of its post-launch plans for Killing Floor 3, which include improved animations, the ability for playable characters to be able to pick any perk, and the implementation of text chat.
Killing Floor 3 supports six-player co-op and features cross-play across platforms. In a hands-on preview, we said Killing Floor 3 “paints a terrific first impression” and “looks like a killer co-op package,” though only “time will tell if it can sustain itself in the long-term.”
