6 years and 2 months of beta testing and I get this. I mean whats the point in beta testing...

@Shinlucifeh

that's a foolish question, jk

considering most games that get released are still in some form of beta testing up to 6 months after the game is released. why would microsoft want to pay people to beta test their hardware when they can get people to pay to beta test it for them?

This is not a beta test. It is a limited technical test. For those of you that get to participate in this...... Be prepared for there to be bugs. Respawn has no information on a beta at this point.

hardware is not tested externally

Microsoft does not have any opportunity for civilian testing. "Beta" is not demo, it means a piece of software that is feature complete but still riddled with bugs. It means that you have to undergo a methodical process of seeking them out and documenting them properly so that they can be fixed

I know that the popular belief is that a beta means a demo, that you just sit there and play it, but when they get to that point, they've already been in Beta for a very long time and they're just testing external server functionality

If you want to work in QC then you need to get a job as a game developer

I have said the same thing for weeks. Its a beta not the full the full game. People do not get what a beta is for. I bet they are putting out patches every day or 2 for the closed beta testing.100% of betas closed/open that i have done, the full game is
close but a lot different in so many ways to the final game. They should never let the public play a beta. People just do not under stand that it is a vary chopped up version of the game designed to test things. ALL games these days have a day one patch.
Then 1 every month for 4-5 months.

10 years and 8 months and Live startd in Nov 2002...2 years before H2. But there was a beta test phase in 2002 prior to the official launch date in Nov. And it was Mechassualt...not Mechwarrior.