Video Game Betas, Play Official Games for Free

Do you know what a Beta is in the video game world? It's a stage of production for a gaming software development company to test and polish the video game that they are currently working on. During this period it may be possible to play official pre-released games before they hit store shelves. This is a common occurrence for console games, PC games, as well as massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG).

Basically, the stages of game testing starts with Alpha which may comprise of several stages itself (ie, Alpha 1, Alpha 2, etc). Following that is the Beta stage which can also be separated into several stages (ie, Beta 1, Beta 2, etc). Although, it is known that for some gaming companies that they do open up the alpha stage for external testing periods with small groups of gamers, it's usually not a common thing to see. Usually, the Beta stage is when you see external non-employees playing the game for the soul purpose of testing it.

There have been times when I have played a game for over a year before it was released to stores, giving me plenty of free play time, and all I had to do was just fill out a little bit on an online form, agree to the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), and then proceed to get in as much play time as I want. A word to the wise, if they have a NDA for the beta, don't break it. Otherwise, you may lose your privilege of playing the game for free. Make sure you read the NDA carefully before playing.

A Beta is usually a full game or almost complete game. Some people confuse "demo" with "beta" thinking that it's one in the same. A demo is usually about 5% of the game, so people can try it out before they buy it. A beta is the full game in the last stage of development before the game goes gold. Usually during that period it should be, for all intents and purposes, be regarded as either a full game or almost complete game.

So your probably wondering just how you get into a Beta in the hopes of helping test out a game, while in the meantime letting yourself play an official game before it's released on shelves. Usually it's a very simple step, it's either the development company says that it's an Open Beta or you can sign up on their site for a Closed Beta, which usually asks you several questions, asks for your system specifications, and also to enter your email so they can contact you.

Before I get ahead of myself I'll explain what a Open Beta and Closed Beta are. For the Open Beta It's a period that the game developer allows anyone to participate, and usually you will have access to the game that very same day after you download it. A Closed Beta is a period which only people who have been selected from a pool of beta applicants get to participate in the game during that cycle. You will notice that the Closed Beta comes before the Open Beta.