Planet Coaster: Charging Players for Alpha Access

[Jahaga]

I've participated in many, many beta tests for many different games and recently I've come across something I think is rather absurd. Devs charging players to participate in the beta test. Why is this a thing? I'm not talking about pre-order bonuses include beta access, I'm talking about a price specifically for the beta test.

Am I wrong to say that the beta test is the period in which devs invite players with a wide range of hardware to test the games performance and to hunt for bugs? It's the part where we the players assist the devs with developing the game, right? So why would devs charge players to do that?

This is the first time I've encountered this and it's with Planet Coaster, developed by Frontier. These are the offers they have for the game:

Planet Coaster: $29.99 (base game)

Early Bird Upgrade: $45.00 (alpha access)

Coaster Head Edition: $67.99 (base game, t-shirt, wrist band, private forum, meet the team Q&A, extended dev diaries, and community polls. NO ALPHA ACCESS)

Deluxe Edition: $105.99 (the above three combined)

They're charging players $45 to test their game! Just. To test. Their game. WHAT?! Am I the only one who thinks this is absolutely insane? Do they actually care about getting as much feedback about the game as they can? Don't they want to be sure it runs on as much hardware as they can? Why on earth would they charge players to help develop their game?

What's even more disturbing is they're charging players for a private forum, extended dev diaries, dedv Q&A, and community polls. All of which I've never been charged for in my life. All of these things have always been free because we're helping the devs make the game better and they want as much feedback as possible.

I've noticed that more and more players treat the beta test as an early access to the game, rather than a time to test it. I feel like Frontier realizes this and has decided to take advantage of it and sell alpha/beta access for $45, but advertise it as early access.

Yeah, no one's forcing me to purchase it, but I'd like to help test the game, too. Why put a price on the beta when it's purpose is for the players to help out? In my opinion, I find this to be very wrong and very greedy. What are your thoughts?

[Remilia]

What Alpha is supposed to be is internal testing. So with people you work with and what not. Beta is public testing, that's how it's supposed to be but for some odd reason people have been messing with that. Minecraft for example was also being sold at alpha status before transitioning to beta (if you can call it that). This isn't the first game and probably won't be the last game to have 'alpha' access for kick starters.

It's essentially a cheap cash grab and shouldn't be called alpha/beta testing quite honestly. It goes from volunteering to do some of their work (finding bugs) to paying them to do their work.

[Jahaga]

You have basically answered why they do it right here. Beta tests in the games industry, outside of a few notable exceptions, have basically just become early access for players and a way to build hype for a game, rather than genuine bug hunting of a near complete version of the game.

Putting a price on very early versions of the game is basically going to guarantee that the only people that buy in will either be a) Youtubers whose audience might be interested or b) people that are genuinely passionate and excited about the game enough that they are willing to provide feedback on design.

This is no more dodgy than kickstarters that include Alpha/Beta access at a higher tier than what the base game is. You are, essentially, paying extra for earlier access to the game.

Yeah, I know I answered my own question. I'm more looking for others thoughts and opinions.

I don't think slapping a fee on testing the game necessarily attracts passionate/serious gamers to provide feedback. That sort of implies the difference between passionate/serious gamers and others is money. I'm just as passionate as those people paying more for it, but I don't see any value in paying to essentially become a janitor for Frontier's game.

I guess I'm maybe a smarter consumer?

[Graeham]

It's a dubious business practice but as with many dubious business practices there's enough people out there buying into this sort of thing to make it profitable.

[Afrospinach]

I guess I'm maybe a smarter consumer?

If you say so, there are a lot of people always clamouring to get into invite only beta tests. Why not charge them? They will buy the game anyway most likely so it is no loss to them.

The only problem there is the consumers themselves, who do not understand that implications of beta test and early access resulting in some of the dumbest whinging on the interwebz.

[Jahaga]

Yeah, they'll probably get the game anyway, but it cost them, in this case, and extra $45 for a total of $75. I just don't see the value there. Especially when I'm essentially paying the devs to become a janitor for their game. Pay to work for them.

[Deleted]

i've encountered this so many times since minecraft first did it that i don't know how you could not have seen this before

the amount of games selling the game in Alpha is extremely high

[Nanaboostme]

A little OT but a nice compilation of user created content in current Alpha

[Nanaboostme]

Current Alpha:

[Dhrizzle]

What Alpha is supposed to be is internal testing. So with people you work with and what not. Beta is public testing, that's how it's supposed to be but for some odd reason people have been messing with that. Minecraft for example was also being sold at alpha status before transitioning to beta (if you can call it that). This isn't the first game and probably won't be the last game to have 'alpha' access for kick starters.

It's essentially a cheap cash grab and shouldn't be called alpha/beta testing quite honestly. It goes from volunteering to do some of their work (finding bugs) to paying them to do their work.

The important difference with Minecraft is early adopters got a discount on the game, it seems a bit odd to be charging extra for the privilege of testing.

That said, clearly people are willing to pay so I've no problem with devs charging extra. Don't think I'd ever buy into an alpha like that.

[Deleted]

FDEV also do similar re:Elite Dangerous.
They get players to pay to play beta, players stick in bug reports, but then a lot of those still appear in live.

Didn`t gw2 also do this? Anyone that pre-purchased got to do early access, aka test the servers, report bugs, see nothing change.

Magicka Wizard Wars (R.I.P. Paradix) again, you bought alpha access, got some items anyone in live would never get.

I guess this is just the way things will go from here on in.

[lawow74]

Pretty simple: As long as people pay, someone will sell. Doesn't matter what it is.