It's been a while I wanted to do a thread like this, but I think it's worth doing it.
Those days common users playing beta are basically the new QA guys, except they work totally for free.
We all know games ship in a bugged state those days, some of them are so bugged you can consider them a beta, even if those are 1.0.
I see threads like the PS4 Firmware 6.01 beta and I wonder how much money software houses are just saving with those practices. We know about some of them find ways to avoid paying taxes, the QA those days is pretty much non-existent, leading to situations like the recent Shenmue Collection, the Silent Hill Collection in the past, Assassin's Creed Unity, PUBG. People are often paying to beta-test products or, much worse, they just pay for products which remain broken even after the official release.
Why someone would beta-test a firmware for a new console if there is not a single benefit if not an early access to the update, with the risk of breaking your console (I still remember some official PS3 firmware updates that bricked several console) or compromising your account? It sounds like a suicidal procedure to me with literally no benefit. The only benefit is for the producer/software house which can avoid paying people to make sure the update/software works as intended. The Microsoft Insider program is indicative of this, with huge bugs passing under the radar of common users and ended up to be in an official update retired the day after released because it could nuke some personal data.
And still in this industry there are people willing to pay even more for their games, because 60$ (which are really 60$ in THEIR country, while they are 70 or 75€ in Europe) isn't enough. Games costed much less to produce in the past, of course, but it's also true they used to sell much less and SH weren't used to spend insane amount of money just for marketing, also avoid to paying taxes if they can, charging additional money for microtransactions, dlcs, season passes, even early access to the game or, like the title of this thread suggest, cutting cost where they should spend money instead.
EDIT: Maybe I used the term QA employee improperly, what I mean is people actually paid to test the game. If they are not the same of QA guys, well, I'm referring to actual, paid beta-testers.
Those days common users playing beta are basically the new QA guys, except they work totally for free.
We all know games ship in a bugged state those days, some of them are so bugged you can consider them a beta, even if those are 1.0.
I see threads like the PS4 Firmware 6.01 beta and I wonder how much money software houses are just saving with those practices. We know about some of them find ways to avoid paying taxes, the QA those days is pretty much non-existent, leading to situations like the recent Shenmue Collection, the Silent Hill Collection in the past, Assassin's Creed Unity, PUBG. People are often paying to beta-test products or, much worse, they just pay for products which remain broken even after the official release.
Why someone would beta-test a firmware for a new console if there is not a single benefit if not an early access to the update, with the risk of breaking your console (I still remember some official PS3 firmware updates that bricked several console) or compromising your account? It sounds like a suicidal procedure to me with literally no benefit. The only benefit is for the producer/software house which can avoid paying people to make sure the update/software works as intended. The Microsoft Insider program is indicative of this, with huge bugs passing under the radar of common users and ended up to be in an official update retired the day after released because it could nuke some personal data.
And still in this industry there are people willing to pay even more for their games, because 60$ (which are really 60$ in THEIR country, while they are 70 or 75€ in Europe) isn't enough. Games costed much less to produce in the past, of course, but it's also true they used to sell much less and SH weren't used to spend insane amount of money just for marketing, also avoid to paying taxes if they can, charging additional money for microtransactions, dlcs, season passes, even early access to the game or, like the title of this thread suggest, cutting cost where they should spend money instead.
EDIT: Maybe I used the term QA employee improperly, what I mean is people actually paid to test the game. If they are not the same of QA guys, well, I'm referring to actual, paid beta-testers.
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