‚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.
