There has been a growing trend over the last two or three years where video game publishers offer alpha or beta test access to players who purchase the game months or even years before it is released. This sounds like a sound business strategy for the game makers, as it is guaranteed sales from day one, but is it good for the consumers?

The alpha version of a game is usually incredibly unstable, and it can often be missing music, completed textures, important gameplay elements and dozens of other features. Beta versions are generally more stable and fairly complete, but they still suffer from bugs and other problems.

Many games, especially multiplayer games and MMOs, follow a cycle of Closed Alpha>Closed Beta>Open Beta>Final Release. Closed alpha and closed beta are both invitation-only, but open beta is free to everyone. At least, it used to be.

A recent trend in gaming has developers offering beta access to people willing to pay for an unfinished, unreleased game. Bungie did this with their popular first-person shooter, Destiny, and Blizzard Entertainment is currently doing the same with its upcoming MOBA game, Heroes of the Storm.

The Minecraft model

One of the primary reasons many publishers offer access to unfinished versions of their games for a cost is to further fund the games’ development. The most successful example of this is Mojang’s Minecraft, which offered early alpha access for around $12 USD. As the game became more popular, its funding grew and Mojang was able to funnel more resources into Minecraft’s development. Today, Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time, and by 2014 it had over 100 million registered accounts.

For a small developer – like Mojang was at the time – this business model makes sense for both producers and consumers. As with crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, the creators get the funds they need while the donors get a unique product developed outside of the traditional channels.

But for multi-billion dollar companies like Activision Blizzard Inc., it is hard to see the sale of beta access as anything other than a play for guaranteed sales.