In my opinion, just look at FC 25 —
everyone was sharing feedback through EA’s official feedback portal.
This helped the developers truly understand the real issues in the game, allowing them to improve and adjust FC 26 based on analyzing all the feedback.
So the beta version should also be available to everyone, because through mass feedback, they can analyze more data and identify problems using the same method.
But when it's limited to a small number of players — with codes sent randomly — some of them might not even understand the importance of giving proper feedback or testing the game for issues. So what’s the point then?
In my opinion, the real reason lately for making the beta closed and limited to a select few is because they don’t want everyone trying the game. Some people might feel the game is bad and decide not to buy it. That’s why they want to limit access, so that even people who are unsure can’t really know if the game is good or not — they just rely on what others say, and that increases the chances of them buying it.
I think that’s the reason.
But if you truly want to release a game that’s free of issues and genuinely fun, you have to be brave and let everyone try your product. If it’s worth buying, people will definitely buy it.
That’s my general opinion.
Whilst I would love to agree with you abou that, how did that go for likes of COD? They always do an open beta and the game is still a mess, the amount of people that participate in the beta has no clear indication that it will improve the quality of the game.
It could possibly be about server space, as we all know it doesn't seem to take much for the fc servers to become overwhelmed, just look at content time on any given day, the servers slow down tremendously. Nobody would be playing the beta because the servers would be trashed from everyone trying to get on.
Back in the day, EA used to release versions called "Demos", and they were available to everyone — up until FIFA 20. The real question is: why did they switch to closed betas starting from FIFA 21 until now? Maybe I can agree with you when it comes to servers and other technical issues, but overall, I believe everyone should have the right to try the game before buying it.
A closed beta is different from a demo release. A demo gives you access to a small portion of the game as a trial, a closed beta is playing an unfinished product to help the devs by giving them feedback, pointing out bugs or glitches, and so on.
