We also have to consider alot of things when talking about a beta.
They would have had to focus production on making a playable build “piece” of the game, hiding off things they didn’t want us to get access to, making sure everything worked, setting up just all these things that would have slowed overall production.
ALSO we have no idea the number of bugs they DID fix while doing closed beta, while not having to slow production. There’s no way to say “they could have fixed these bugs with a beta” when we can’t confidently analyze the status of every scenario for the game.
If 343 took the time to make a beta, they would have missed the holiday season window, which comes with the free advertising from websites for “game of the year” competitions, among other huge financial incentives.
Also upon speaking to developers, they prioritize bugs.
Stuff that effects everyone > stuff that effects the hardcore
Is something like the boltshots range going to effect the common user? Or the exp cap? Or the specialization situation?
Not in the slightest. Most new users will see “man that gun has killed me alot, I’ll use it!”, and they’ll never encounter these experience road blocks.
(the biggest problem with the boltshot is philosophy on it. EVERYONE has access to it, so it’s not technically “overpowered”, the people arguing about it are actually arguing “should we have a 1 shot kill weapon available for starts?”)
It’s obvious that 343 has a list of things to fix, and some of the things hardcore gamers pick out aren’t at the top. Join in progress was fixed, which EVERYONE will deal with. (it works perfect now :D) Map exploits were fixed aswell, which we’ll all run into.
But editing the boltshot to be more reasonable? Not a big deal. The Not hardcore majority will not care as much because they just don’t.