So from what I had gathered over time:

1. Prototype: Still a tech demo
2. Alpha: The game still needs content
3. Beta: Content complete, now it needs polishing for balance/bugs, basically a "tech test"

So Titanfall 2 pre-alpha tech test is a prototype in beta? Or are we just renaming demos/promos again?

A stage before alpha.

Who exactly called it a pre-alpha? I'm pretty sure Respawn has only been using the term "tech test," and have specifically said that it's not a beta. As far as my best guess goes:

Tech test = this is us testing server load. It might not work right. You didn't have to pay anything, or pre-order anything, or even sign up, so don't come bitching to us if things don't work correctly. It's just a test.

Basically what Capcom should have done with their shitty, broken, garbage Street Fighter V pre-order beta. Wouldn't have been a problem otherwise, but some people paid money up front for that mess.

It's definitely just a renamed demo/promo, actual alpha's don't occur in the last phase of the development cycle.

Those stages in the development cycle doesn't really mean what they used to mean. At least not when communicating with the audience. Betas are being judged like final products by the public these days. And Alphas has come to mean close to finished.

So I guess studios needed to invent new terms to really underline that everything about the product can change, so please don't think you know what it will become.

Soon we will play versions called Proof of Concept. then Pre-Proof of Concept.

I think tech test is actually the best name for these and way more authentic than "beta" or "alpha". They are testing severs, the code is probably 98% done.

A lot of those terms have kinda lost their meaning, especially in the hands of marketing people. Their use will also differ a lot between different development teams.

Typically a pre-alpha is essentially still in the prototyping phases where you're still hammering out the fundamental design. Alpha phase is where you're doing the major feature development. Beta phase is where you're finishing things - doing stuff like fixing bugs, optimizing performance, finalizing balance, and adding in final art/audio assets.

All of that being said, as others have commented, I don't think Respawn ever called this a pre-alpha.

The game is out in two months it is most certainly not a "pre-alpha" that is something that wouldn't be out for a year or multiple years.

Quick look, bottom right corner.

@floydeo: I stand corrected. In that case, I guess I'd say it's a misuse of the "pre-alpha" label because clearly this is a game that's almost done.

And I'd agree.

Perhaps that text has been there for a very long while, and they just never removed it. Or perhaps they don't want to have people complaining about the test, and "pre-alpha" sounds technical enough to keep at least some people quiet. "Tech test" doesn't have the same quality to it, as a "tech test" sounds like something that could happen at any stage of development.

I watched Jeff play it and I'm almost a hundred percent sure it said "Titanfall 2 Pre-Alpha" on the loading screens.

But yes, this looks way more like a beta than a pre-alpha. I have always understood "pre-alpha" to mean "taking shape", "alpha" to mean "this is what it's going to look like but it's not feature complete" and "beta" to mean "feature-complete but we're still squashing bugs and adjusting features".

Let's hope they learn for next time and make the Titanfall 3 pre-alpha a zip file filled with concept art and code snippets.

It means that the final product of Titanfall 2 will actually be a board game.

Well, in this case its marketing promo use has been divorced from its dev cycle use.

They have to call it the pre-alpha, so that next month we get the alpha and then the beta soon before launch. Even though at this point there will be little discernible difference between them. It's just a cool way of saying 'First, second and third demos'.

Marketing!

They use the words pre-alpha/alpha/beta as a way to get out of any sort've technical criticisms. It's a scapegoat term in this sense.

No one in the public touches actual pre-alpha builds 99% of the time.

Agreed, Respawn definitely aren't the first guys to use the term Technical Test but I'm very glad it's now becoming the general term for early access previews of games. Betas and Alphas were always butcherings of the actual meaning.

Yeah alpa,beta... these terms don't realy mean anything anymore when used to describe something that is released publicly. It has become marketing speak that means "oh please don't judge this pre release thing too hard, it's only an alpha". It's kinda anoying when people start using the term to shield them from critisism like with DayZ.

Agree wit this, those terms have lost all meaning in the public space. They might still hold true internally in development houses. But they have pretty much become marketing buzz and a way for a developer to not take too much heat if the product sucks because its in an unfinished state.

Okay, Bill Hicks. Whatever you say.

Seriously though, you don't get more "marketing" than the official website or the official trailer, both of which only refer to this as a "tech test."

If the on-screen text in the game itself says pre-alpha, I very much doubt that marketing had anything to do with it. It's either old text that wasn't removed, or something that the developer wanted there for some reason. See post 11 for my theory on that subject.

I do get where you're coming from, though. Marketing can be quite awful at times.

It's a chance for you to play a game before release and decide if you want to spend your hard earned $60 on it when it's finally out - somewhat of a rarity these days as demos no longer exist.

Honestly who cares about the nomenclature.

@humanity: Isn't it becoming more and more common to be able to play games before release? I remember Titanfall, Battlefield 4, Battlefield 1, Evolve, The Division, Overwatch, Titanfall 2 , DOOM, Battleborn all being playable before release.

Marketing.

My guess is that it's a fallback in case a massive bug or something similar is discovered. Then they can say "it's pre-alpha, these things happen". Most likely something coming from the marketing department.

I wouldn't be surprised if they called this a pre-alpha just as a joke referencing how the terms have lost meaning, because it's that absurd to call it a pre-alpha.

@onemanarmyy: Yah it's becoming more common now, which is a great thing, but it's definitely not the industry standard anymore.

I gotta rephrase my question a little i guess. What signifies alpha vs beta in this case? Why even go with pre-alpha?

Why did they change the term, if "beta" is the given term now? And why add "tech test" aswell, that's just what a beta is?

Short answer? They changed it because they could.

Long answer? Beta is commonly accepted as a basically complete product because the term was butchered by marketing. Since the game is still having its kinks ironed out, they don't want people to think the finished game will be a technical mess, thus they chose to use alpha over beta because then it gets the average consumer to picture what we know is an actual beta. Why they said "pre-alpha", I haven't the foggiest. Marketing? Leftover watermark from a way earlier version of the game that they forgot to change (they obviously wanted something there to differentiate the footage from the final game post-release)?

tl;dr

Average joes think this way: Complete game = "beta", Beta version of game = "alpha", Any version before that = "pre-alpha".

Hardcore people (i.e. us) think this way: Complete game = released (and Day 1 patched), Pre-release demo/"beta" = Pre-patched release version, Beta version = "beta", Alpha version = "alpha"

Do they really though? And who exactly are you talking about? I feel so out of touch.

Why do people get so up in arms about this? Words change their meaning over time. In the video game world its pretty simple...

Alpha: first version of the game that gets released to public to try out

Beta: second version of the game that gets released to public to try out

Retail Release: Game releases on store shelves to be bought.

I take back my last question.

Pre-alpha is a beta of alpha or even alpha of alpha :D

As others have said it's basically marketing departments appropriation of developer words. Getting to play an Alpha makes it seems like you're in an exclusive club, that you're seeing it raw before it's finished. It also allows them to say "But that's only an alpha build" when people speak negatively about it. Then, as others have said, there is the "Alpha male" and "Alpha being the best" idea that adds to the marketing. But I'll tell you one thing; If your maps have all of the models positioned correctly, complete with bounding boxes and full HD textures. If you have a full UI without some development art. If the software isn't crashing a lot and If it's feature complete then it's not really an alpha. The alpha build for a game being released this month would have been at least 12-18 months ago.

They Just mean Demo or server stress test, but no one wants to play a demo. They want to play an APLHA, because fuck yeah. Exclusive. ALPHA!!!!!!

If you actually want to know what Pre-Alpha, Beta, Open Beta and RC are, from the development side of things actually are, and not what marketting deparments want to you to believe they are, take a look at the Stages of release page on Wikipedia. I'll summarise here.

• Pre-alpha: Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the software project before testing. These activities can include requirements analysis, software design, software development, and unit testing.
• Alpha: The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing. In this phase, developers generally test the software. Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha software may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version. The alpha phase usually ends with a feature freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software.
• Beta: Beta phase generally begins when the software is feature complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues and may still cause crashes or data loss. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing.
• Release candidate: A release candidate (RC) is a beta version with potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. In this stage of product stabilization, all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more beta cycles with no known showstopper-class bugs. A release is called code complete when the development team agrees that no entirely new source code will be added to this release.

What they mean in the case of something Like Titanfall 2 is:

• Pre-Alpha: Small demo, maybe a server stress tests, maybe a bit of monitoring for exploits.
• Alpha: larger demo, a larger server stress test.
• Beta: Demo

It irrationally annoys me, being from a development background when they misappropriate or reappropriate the terms as it can be used as a shield from criticism, and also gives an unrealistic expectation of what an actual Alpha build of a game looks like. (hint: It's MS Paint made UI by people who can't draw, crashes a lot and probably has placeholder textures and models and at least 1 penis drawing)

EDIT: I found a better description of the stages of development, more specific to game software, here but essentially it's the same.

It's not done? I don't see why it should matter that much to consumers.

And as I have said, literally ALL the marketing for this thing that I've seen--including the official website, twitter accounts, and announcement trailer--has ONLY referred to this thing as a tech test, with absolutely no mention of the words alpha or beta.

hahah at the idea that they are tapping into the idea of an "alpha male" with this terminology. There is a lot of trying too hard in this thread. It's just not done! However they represent their stages to the public, it just means it isn't done.

@spaceinsomniac: why even bother saying tech test and not beta though? ...cause a beta == tech test

@spaceinsomniac: Sorry, I wasn't talking specifically about Titanfall. I was answering the OPs question generally about what the terms actually mean, vs marketing departments definition. Although I believe you are mistaken that this demo isn't being referred to as a "pre-alpha". It has it labelled in the bottom-right corner of the latest marketing material.

Maybe their server and matchmaking stuff is in pre-alpha? I mean, apart from marketing, that's why these things exist? To test the server load.

Who cares, really? You understand what they mean.

Yes, all those terms are meaningless when used to the public. They might as well be called "pre-release content" because they are always the same: "footage of a highly controlled space, not final but almost, this is what it looks like a couple weeks before we wrap QA testing".

In real terms, pre-alpha would be anywhere in the middle of the development process. That means UI, models and art assets are replaced by placeholders, the map is a bunch of cubes, only a few items do something, almost nothing is animated and most characters looks the same (like low res NPCs in a PS1 game). Please note that pre alpha is a stage that never gets shown to anyone outside the development team. It is the "proof of concept" phase, it is the no-clipping and hovering on the map phase. It is far behind the stage when trailers or screenshots are made available.

And yes, this is marketing talk. It is the idea of making the content available earlier to make you feel special. Since beta has become meaningless, because everyone expects them in online games, we have to say this is even earlier, even "more special" content. Also, since they are not yet completely done with QA, it is likely the public will see something rough, and since they forced the issue by equating beta to "almost golden", they have to make sure the players know it is unfinished.

Maybe "Pre-alpha" is referring to the netcode?

I was under the impression that Pre-alpha is the state of the game before they have featured locked all content and typically never really shown to anyone. This has been changing quite a bit with games being funded through Kickstarter. Alpha is the stage where the game is featured locked but content and features could be removed if it remains too buggy or not cohesive. Beta's typically mean no other features are being removed and it's all fine tuning and bug squashing at the point.

That's a really basic way of explaining it but I think fundamentally works.

When talking about game software all you are getting is "marketing speak". The condition or polish of the code is not even part of teh discussion. Just think of it this way anything the consumer touches or sees is likely all well past Beta. In most cases consumers are only touching "vertical slices" that were shown at a trade show or a demo that was made to 'market the game'.

The reals meaning of Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate, or Going Gold in terms of software developmentis not connected to what 'marketing' lables a demo the consumer sees. If it runs on your stock console that code is way-way-way past labels like Alpha and Beta.

There was definitely a watermark on the quick look footage, EA are calling it pre alpha. It's not, it's just marketing bollocks.

Well, I've done tesing in pre-alpha before and I can say it's about one step removed from prototype. Usually it's only internal (or sometimes what they often call friends and family) testing when they're trying to get the base for what they want the game to be a little bit beyond just the initial prototyping done. Usually in a pre-alpha all the game is is bugs because nothing is fully implemented yet.

That being said marketing teams have coopted these standard terms used to explain what point the software is at in development now when speaking with the public so it's very difficult sometimes to determine where the game is actually at. Usually it's actually around a beta because very few (if any) publishers/devs want to show the public their game when it's in it's training diapers anymore.

Most of the time when anything is shown these days, to regular players, it's beta footage (if that) and often if you're playing it and being asked for your opinion on the game the game is probably almost gold. In fact it seems like they wouldn't let you play the game at even that stage at all if not for the fact that they need to stress test their servers and time has proven that they cannot fully rely on botting this let alone wholly rely on just the testing done by people who pay attention to that. So, in total, marketing co-opts the terms used by the more savvy bunch (generally the ones playing "betas") and they tell them the game is in whatever state that makes the most sense to them. I think they do it to make it look like its farther back in development than it is so that it actually looks pretty good (because if you actually know what a beta is and the game runs better than that you'll probably be impressed) but I can only guess. They could also be using a random term because they don't actually know themselves what any of these terms mean and don't care. Just using the terms helps them somehow I'm sure.

It's always a psychological thing anyway when it comes to marketing.

Anyway, I don't know what they mean in terms of this game, but I know what the pre-alpha's I've tested were in the past. They're usually a mess (which, at pre-alpha, they should be really). Most regular players will probably never see a true "pre-alpha" these days.