[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boiler569

It definitely takes awhile for the degenerates of the community to find the 'best' exploits, and for that to propagate lol so that's a fair point for sure. I suppose that's why I'd like to see the Beta in two stages. The first would be pretty limited and focused on finding game-breaking bugs, crashes and other issues (not as focused on gameplay balancing). This one could be open for a long weekend, then shutdown. Second stage would be an open Beta/Demo that comes out at a month before Launch, with ability to play online up until launch (or at least close to launch date). We'd be able to spend a few weeks with the Demo Build to give feedback, and Day 1 Patch/Hotfix could fix a lot of immediate issues. Or at least allow EA to have a running start! It's a business decision of course --- open betas/etc. aren't cheap and idk if EA would even allow a Beta/Demo to run for a month straight. Even so, there will always be issues at Launch which I definitely understand, but the longer the Beta the better (and if we can get a Closed Beta followed a month or two by an Open Beta...it can only help)

Lets say they go with your idea. A month before release there is an open beta that goes until release date:

- It takes work to create a beta so the version of the beta is always a poor representation of the game. The beta version is always at least a month or so older than the current version that they are working on. So the users are likely identifying bugs that have already been addressed or fixed.

- Lets say the beta is released on feb 1 and the game is released on March 1. The only feedback that will be in a day 1 patch is likely to be feedback from the first 2 weeks because it takes a few weeks to fix the bugs and submit the the patch for cert. So most of the feedback wont be in the retail version of the game until the day 30 patch.

- Also as you said, EA will never have an open beta 30 days before a game is released. To many opportunities for people to record and upload bugs/glitches online and lead to negative press. That will absolutely step on their promotion.