No infrastructure to do beta on console. As code itself almost doesn't diverge much (except integration), no need.
oh, if it's only integration, that's a relief!! (i'm being ironic, you may not know that integration is likely to be the most critical aspect of any release).
Beta is proper beta anyway. It is not like it's preview of content.
proper beta. hm. are you sure you're talking about elite dangerous?
if this is going like all betas before (paid for or free), this is what is going to happen:
- test servers up and people start playing with fish
- people submits reports
- frontier fixes some of the bugs, pushes update, rinse and repeat
- beta ends
- frontier publishes new code that contains some of the old bugs, some new, along with some totally unexpected features never announced nor tested
- forum hilarity ensues while frontier takes some rest
- weeks pass
- frontier publishes a patch for some of the bugs
- release done
the good thing is some of the content being secret is actually not a new problem. it has been always that way.