New Delhi: Well, ARC, the Indian Gaming Hardware Company, is rolling out the launch of ARC X1 for the pre-launch Beta Testers. With this initiative selected community members get precautionary access to handheld, which can provide them structured feedback and refine the event product even before the product commercialization in India.
The beta program dovetails with the ARC’s current approach of building in public. As the ARC X1 has been made open-source, updates regarding the design of early prototypes, design and industrial decisions, sourcing of components, and engineering challenges have been shared throughout the design process.
With this program, ARC is shifting roles from community members as passive observers to active participants throughout the product development lifecycle. It is open only for those who have been in the ARC X1 waitlist since the beginning, and thus have been delighted with the device since its conception. On August 1st, the latest users that sign up for the waitlist will be eligible for consideration when future testing cohorts next begin.
ARC has also stated that the project is a specific product testing program, not some sort of product giveaway or promotional campaign. Participants will be selected according to the technical experimentation requirements to obtain a varied spectrum of preferences, play styles and use habits in a game.
The chosen participants will however be asked to experience the ARC X1 in different normal games. ARC also intends to gather data and feedback for a number of important subject areas, such as hardware & ergonomics and software & gaming. Internal labs can provide more concrete numbers, but when you see these aspects in real usage, they can really take you by surprise.
The end user’s experience will incorporate key bits from the community to sharpen and hone the end product, but final product decisions will be based on engineering feasibility, development time and the core product vision.
