I came across a thread on Reddit that got me thinking. What is the primary difference between a game being in beta, and being in game preview? Other than taking your money and having the chance to play the full game if it’s ever finished.
Game companies learned they can charge money for betas by calling it early access. Simple as that.
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Beta’s can ruin a games sales if they don’t charge for access to them. For Honor had a beta that 6 million people played for free but only 1.8 million copies have been sold as of July.
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For that particular game, it could have been due to the amount of hype it had for the beta until release. The gameplay is REALLY repetitive and limited. It’s basically a button mashing Dynasty Warriors and it just didn’t captivate people like it promised. I’ve heard absolutely nothing about For Honor since it came out.
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I also completely 100% disagree with this
Charging for a beta is a relatively new thing. You used to get beta demo discs in gaming magazines back in the day. Nobody is going to play a beta on a game that they are excited for, enjoy it and go “ok I’ve played enough”
You notice that I put can not will. Usually a free beta for a highly anticipated game will boost sales. With For Honor, I think the beta killed sales. It was a game that for many had high anticipation. 6 million unique players played in the beta. Then hardly anyone bought it. I think sales would have been better if they didn’t do a beta at all. Also if you look at games like Ark and look at their sales, they sold 9 million copies in early access. Now it maybe isn’t the most fair comparison because Ark is a good game even with it’s faults while For Honor can’t get past it’s faults. However there is something to be said about invested loyalty. It took around 2 years for Ark to sell 9 million copies yet it was only a handful of days for For Honor to see 6 million unique players. When people bought Ark they probably helped sway their friends into purchasing it while the For Honor beta players probably swayed their friends against playing it. I wish I had two closer styled games for comparison. My point is simply that in the case of For Honor, if they sold beta access they would have made more money before people realised the game was a warm pile 
. I will still buy For Honor when it goes on a deep sale for less than $20, just to play the campaign and fart around in multiplayer.
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Most betas now days are just server stress test. Sea of Thieves is the first real beta I have played in years. Betas are also typically a small portion of the game. EA games are typically all the content that they have at that moment with no artificial barriers.
Early game previews are normally from devs with low to no money and that’s what gets the game in motion. Sucky part is a lot of douche bags go this route to make a quick buck.
I actually prefer early access. Some of my favorite games have been in EA for years and I have more fun with them than most of the $60 crap I buy. I like getting in early and cheap.
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Sorry but you can’t so nobody. I have played betas for games I was excited for, and enjoyed and then not purchased it cause I played 15 to 20 hours of beta.
One reason I don’t play FPS betas anymore. They tend to make me hate certain maps due to repetition. Metro in BF4 for example.
Sea of Thieves will be a beta I played and enjoyed but after playing it I don’t plan to buy it. If it was EA it would have already been purchased.
I won’t burn out on betas anymore. I played the beta for Destiny 2 for one night. Just to get the feel of the game and see what has changed. I uninstalled it and am now just waiting for the release.
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Same. I wanted to check it out, yet still wanted the final release to be fresh and new. I played the first night, and logged on to check out the farm…that was it.
Although I’m very tempted to hit up the PC beta, if only to see if my shitty rig can handle it.