I think a lot of this, too, is from publishers pushing for things to be released sooner and not giving the dev team the time they actually need to make it decent on the first go.
Eh, I don't see it being directly related honestly, an earlier release date might likewise cause an earlier "Beta" but doesn't really change the fact that the "Beta" is mostly for show, if anything you'd think that an earlier release date might cause the "Beta" to be released at an earlier stage(in terms of liek Early/Mid/Late Beta Phase) than planned maybe. Mike
If the game turns out well, i wonder next generation if every game won't be available through early funding to play and influence the real development of the game from the first playable build. Maybe uber will write history, and be the next naively mimic'd game development model. Like minecraft was, like steam did, like the last gen of consoles online services.
