[Dahell1234]

Lately games have been having betas or previews of them saying they will use them to ready the game for launch but between the beta and the game nothing ever changes even the servers are the same. Do you think this is just a ploy to market the game?

[MapleLeafMarco]

Yeah especially exclusivity related releases generate hype by people posting around trying to get keys etc. I think it can depend on whoevers making it but if there's no improvement from beta then I think it's safe to say it's just a way of garnering interest. I've also noticed that there's been multi-platform games where games will release on one platform and then release a few months after on the other platform with a lot of updates - The initial platform release was basically a beta without them stating it was a beta and people have basically spent time and money in a game which wasn't complete to aid in the later release

[samw34099]

yes a ploy to market but also to understand kinks and potential problems...I don't mind it though I also don't play beta versions

[trash_omg]

its fine as long as those games dont just stay in beta forever as an excuse for bugs that make it through like "oh don't worry about these issues, we're still working them out its in beta so its not a big deal"

[benten05]

Betas are a good way to see how people react to new features and also to find bugs so they can be removed before game release

[gatorfade]

I think plenty of decelopers use it just to market the game but for smaller indie studios user testing is really important for bug fixing.