Halo: Reach Beta only last 17 days!

 http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1086651p1.html
In this story IGN reveals that the Halo: Reach Beta will only last 17 days! I am not a huge Halo fan but calling this a "beta" seems disingenuous. Can any real information be gathered in such a short period of time? Or is this just another way to whip gamers into a frenzy until the launch where there will be mass murder, theft, and rioting? 
 
I'm just kidding about that last part... I think. I'm not sure anymore.
 
What does everyone else think?

"Can any real information be gathered in such a short period of time?"

It's insanely smart on Bungie's side of thing they get to gather data on whats no working and they leave people hungry for more

Wasn't the Halo 3 beta only 3 weeks?

No they should just leave the thing on until the release for Reach then turn it off. That way I get invested in the game and want to buy the retail. At least give it more then 17 days. with this I am more likly to forget about stuff I liked by the time the actual game releases

Bungie is pretty awesome at running betas. I'm sure they will gather the information they need during that time. It'll definitely be better than MW2's beta. You see what I did there? :p

damn lsot of comments really quickly 

" Wasn't the Halo 3 beta only 3 weeks? "

The Halo 3 beta was originally scheduled to be two weeks long, but it was extended by 4 days because of the issues people were having with the Crackdown disc. Seventeen days seems reasonable to me. At some point they have to turn the thing off and focus all of their efforts on actually finishing the game.

Seems completely reasonable to me. Bungie is known for having a great online infrastructure and data-gathering tools. They'll have hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, playing the beta for 17 days straight. Throughout that period they can check the data and make changes as necessary, and continue to do so after the beta ends. 17 days times 24 hours in a day... that's conceivably 408 hours of hundreds of thousands or even millions of players playing games and giving Bungie online gameplay data. Sounds like plenty.

i think it is good. halo 3 beta was something like that.

" Wasn't the Halo 3 beta only 3 weeks? "

Uh yeah, it's a beta, not a "Hey guys! Come play our game for free forever."

You will also need an mature xbox live account :>

I'll only play it for three of those days, maybe. I'm more interested in the singleplayer, honestly. 

" No they should just leave the thing on until the release for Reach then turn it off. That way I get invested in the game and want to buy the retail. At least give it more then 17 days. with this I am more likly to forget about stuff I liked by the time the actual game releases "