» Sun May 13, 2012 2:06 pm
If they do release a beta I hope it isn't 4 weeks before games release,
Release the beta months before game release, giving you more time for fixes and balance so you don't have to release 3-4 updates making the community wait for months before the game is fixed.
I think it's important we learn from our past mistakes
That's the thing though, they don't necessarily want consumer input on their game. 4 weeks from release isn't a beta, it's a demo. The game would more than likely have gone gold by that point, and the small things which are discovered, can be nicely squeezed into a bite-sized day 1 patch.
I agree that they should have beta testing very early on, but I don't think it should be open. All that serves to do is pressure the developers into not starting testing until the game already looks great; because people, against all reason, do base their purchase decisions off of unfinished builds.