Will this ever be available, and if so, has a date been provided? I looked in the News section and couldn’t find anything, thanks.
Firstly there hasn’t been ANY more information on Halo 5 other than it will be released.
Secondly there’s a whole thread discussing it, and some information about some rumors saying that there will have a extremely high chance of there being no beta do to the fact that Halo 5/Xbox One is slotted to be released 2014, and with past main Halo titles being released in the fall, there’s no time for any dedicated development toward a public beta. Frankly it’s a complete waste of time, something that *(https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm2754708_Halo-5-XB1-Beta.aspx#post2754708) and others have pointed out in the thread pointed out above.
Here’s a quote for the main reason why I and others feel public betas are a waste of time, and why there should be no public beta.
> Personally, the main reason I feel most people want a beta is to play the game sooner than later.
> Looking at other games with Beta’s (such as the just released Battlefield 4 Beta) it’s fairly evident that many of the members partaking in it aren’t there to give any form of logical feedback. While it’s nice to get your hand on a “Demo” version of the game and test it out before it’s released, the point is to bring up bugs and issues that may go overlooked before the final product.
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> Unfortunately, most people just want to play the game early, and when it comes to forums (such as the Battlelog forum), actual constructive feedback goes largely ignored by the community, and is usually instead overtaken by complaints about the game. While complaints are all well and good, most of the time they aren’t constructive, and the actual feedback pertaining weapon balances and bugs/glitches are completely overlooked.
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> So while a Beta would be a fantastic thing to have, I can’t see it being largely beneficial if feedback is not properly submitted and/or monitored.
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> Personally, I want a Beta to see if I should purchase the next game or not (as I was largely underwhelmed by the current one) however I can understand why they would be reluctant to release one, especially because my personal reason for wanting a Beta (which likely coincides with many others) is rather poor.
They absolutely need a beta. They need a beta so they can fix all the crap before launch, not in a series of a title updates extending 6 months after release. We shouldn’t have to have a weapons tuning update, it should be done with data taken from the Beta. etc. etc. etc.
Part of me thinks they need a beta, but the other part of me worries that most people won’t be there to give constructive criticism that makes a beta what it is.
> They absolutely need a beta. They need a beta so they can fix all the crap before launch, not in a series of a title updates extending 6 months after release. We shouldn’t have to have a weapons tuning update, it should be done with data taken from the Beta. etc. etc. etc.
So FightingFalconx, do you guarantee that every single person who partakes in the beta gives feedback? And very detailed feedback at that!? No, you can’t, EVERYONE treats public betas as demos, they don’t give feedback, they don’t say what they like and why, they don’t say what they hate and why, they just say “This game sucks!”, “This isn’t Halo!”, and “We want Bungie back!”.
Also, public betas are not a magical fix for everything, especially if NO ONE TREATS IT AS A BETA.
343i holds in house betas, which btw, is how they find bugs and glitches, and they have play testers, who give the feedback on what it was like playing the game.
But if you read the posts in the thread I linked, you’d notice that I’ve outlined what I think should happen if there is a beta.
> Now as for a beta, here’s my thoughts. If there is to be a beta, it should be like I stated above, a closed beta to a group of people, IE people of the community, and people who are not of the community. It should be a healthy mix of everyone, MLG, competitive gamers, casual gamers, the “I’m a ‘True’ Halo fan” gamers, new gamers, and old gamers. Then have give the players a survey they have to fill out after so many days/matches, if they fill out the survey give them a reward worth it, if not, give a day or two more of the beta, and then remove them from the beta pool, and replace them.
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> Why I suggest this, is mostly because it’ll give people a feel that they are doing a play test, NOT a demo.
> Extra Credits playtesting, this video outlines what a play test actually is.
If you want a beta to fix the issues in the game you think needs to be fix, then what I quoted needs to be done. If you want a beta just so you and others can play the game early, but is using the “Beta’s fix everything!” then please, shut up, and leave the conversation, Beta’s don’t make or break games, there are games out there that don’t have betas, and yet they’re still good games, even Halo games did this, people praise Halo 2, and yet it had no public beta outside of conventions.
Halo CE was one of the greatest games of it’s time, and yet, no public beta.
Hopefully halo 5 gets a beta, but that doesn’t mean it will result in good fixes from beta to finished product. See halo reach beta to finished product, beta was better in terms of actual gameplay (not the bug fixes like the infinite death spawn)
Keep in mind that surveys are not the only way to gather feedback. Betas can provide rich data in the form of stats, handlers for crash logs, and trend analysis. But really I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss an official statement regarding a beta version. From what I gather it sounds like I’ll have to wait for the finished product. Thanks again guys!
> > They absolutely need a beta. They need a beta so they can fix all the crap before launch, not in a series of a title updates extending 6 months after release. We shouldn’t have to have a weapons tuning update, it should be done with data taken from the Beta. etc. etc. etc.
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> So FightingFalconx, do you guarantee that every single person who partakes in the beta gives feedback? And very detailed feedback at that!? No, you can’t, EVERYONE treats public betas as demos, they don’t give feedback, they don’t say what they like and why, they don’t say what they hate and why, they just say “This game sucks!”, “This isn’t Halo!”, and “We want Bungie back!”.
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> Also, public betas are not a magical fix for everything, especially if NO ONE TREATS IT AS A BETA.
Be reasonable, no one is expecting everyone or even a majority to treat it any more than a demo, but the facts of the matter is, they’ll be getting a much wider and therefore accurate pool of feedback than any in house beta. It also allows for general stat tracking–weapon usage and preferences, map balance and so on. Direct feedback is only half of what a beta does, the other half is tracking how the game plays in a natural environment, making even the ones who play it as a demo invaluable to the process.
Yes, Halo 2 didn’t have a beta. And it was absolute -Yoink- until a post launch title update. Halo CE didn’t have a beta. It also didn’t have LIVE. Halo 4 didn’t have a beta, and look where that got us. Don’t be so naïve as to ignore all of the benefits of a public beta.
Before Halo 4 I would have agreed with you. And all though I always have loved Halo 4, it is undeniable it would have benefited greatly from one.
> Be reasonable, no one is expecting everyone or even a majority to treat it any more than a demo, but the facts of the matter is, they’ll be getting a much wider and therefore accurate pool of feedback than any in house beta.
You say this like there’s only two types of betas, in house and public.
There’s also another which is much better than a public beta, it’s called CLOSED beta, it’s only for select people who are given access to it. In the other thread, I did out line who should be invited to it, and how it should be handled.
> It also allows for general stat tracking–weapon usage and preferences, map balance and so on.
Yes this dose, but it that is missing the key part of playtesting, and that’s user feedback, you can read stats all day and all night and figure out a perfect balance, but that won’t tell you how players feel about the game. It doesn’t tell you the real reason why someone doesn’t pick up a certain weapon. It doesn’t tell you why someone doesn’t use a certain vehicle.
> Yes, Halo 2 didn’t have a beta. And it was absolute Yoink! until a post launch title update. Halo CE didn’t have a beta. It also didn’t have LIVE. Halo 4 didn’t have a beta, and look where that got us. Don’t be so naïve as to ignore all of the benefits of a public beta.
Don’t be so Naive!? You shouldn’t be so naive, all you said about Halo CE was “Halo CE didn’t have a beta. It also didn’t have LIVE.” Halo CE still had MP, Halo CE on the Xbox had LAN, which was very popular, Halo PC has the first online Halo MP, zero beta, and yet it’s still a great game. I’m not ignoring the benefits, I’m mostly pointing about reason why there should be no beta, and what to do if there is one.
Also I just want to point out something. Reach had a beta, and yet the released version was disliked by the community as a whole, the beta version was better than the released version, not all of the issues people had with the game was fixed/adjusted, so explain that.
Regardless of what anyone says about constructive feedback, anytime a developer of a major title (especially Halo) decides NOT to have a Beta is a big red flag for me.
Can you imagine how many pre-orders would’ve been canceled had 343 held a Beta for 4?
I see a beta for Halo 5 in a good way. It would fix up any mistakes before launch and be very entertaining for everyone. There might be some drawbacks though. How would they release? When will they release it? How could you get your hands on it? Would it spoil the game for people? I would love to anticipate in the beats to play the game a little early but I don’t want to get a little bored of the game when it’s released because I would’ve already played it before. Obviously the actual game would be better though.
I hope they do a Beta for Halo 5. It would be good to have a preview of what is going to happen before launch.
It’d be interesting to have a Beta, but I doubt there will be one.
Of course all the fans want a beta to play the game early, that’s just common sense, but without one we could end up with another Halo 4…
Also if they do decide to have a beta then it’s guaranteed to be bundled with some game no one wants just to up the sales.
Yes, I’d absolutely love a beta! It serves two purposes: allowing people to get a taste of the game so they know what to expect and so 343 can start obtaining stats early. I find it unlikely that they will have one because if the game releases in November and they need like what, two months to ship all the games out? So they would need like three or two months to implement any changes to the game they received from the beta so there beta would be out in June-ish and quite frankly I don’t think the game will be complete enough for a beta at that point. Of course I could be completely wrong. If they could manage a beta I think it would definitely benefit the game (at the very least we’d get a title update a couple of weeks early if they didn’t have time to put the feedback in the game) Well that’s my two cents.
DONT GET ME WRONG I WANT one / think we need a better/bigger beta group
i dont think we will get one 
But think of all the things that would have been fixed in HALO 4 befor it even came out
- weapons on maps
- red Xs
- Kill cams that work
- black screen x1897 in every game
the list goes on but you get the idea
I am 95 % sure that there won’t be a beta and most of the people who is asking just want to play it early just have that feeling but you never know it could happen.