‘Beta’ and ‘demo’ are not synonyms.
The most significant difference between most playtests I’ve been part of is often simply a matter of content. Rather than iterating on core features, some betas often feel more like a demo designed to sell pre-orders versus actual playtests for unfinished games, with the primary goal of improvement. None of this is helped by these so-called betas often running a mere month or two before release, as was the case with the likes of Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when Battlefield Studios recently released a fairly large blog about its learnings from the Battlefield 6 beta, going into what’s being changed over the next few weeks, and it’s a lot of meaningful tweaks to the core gameplay that prove it wasn’t just a marketing stunt for a change—despite it also scheduled just two months before launch.
The equivalent beta feedback blog for Battlefield 2042, for example, focused on very specific or technical improvements, like « increased the number of tanks that you’ll experience on Orbital », « less funky behaviours with [elevator] doors », a grenade indicator, and shortening (or removing) some vehicle exit and entry animations—though there was also a slight tweak to movement, as has been the case with BF6.
