I believe it should have had a beta release, but as I said, we just don't know what happened and I doubt we will ever know.I mean, the build is similar to the one from alpha, and it was full of issues.
Also, they mentioned the success of odyssey twice (I think ?) as being part of their growth for the investor announcement. Without Odyssey, it would have likely been different.
And there is the fact Odyssey went straight from a small alpha to release, with only a few days between. Something highly unusable in the industry. At least when you want a working game.