History Main / ObviousBeta

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' portrays the titular game as this, owing to being ChristmasRushed. Boss minions display error messages about missing sound files, [=NPCs=] (including the one from the game's ''tutorial'') can be "kidnapped" by players starting but never finishing their quests, the crafting system is described as "seizure-inducing" (the one instance we see is a simultaneous shoot-'em-up, mecha battle, and rhythm game set to [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear "Big Blast Sonic"]]), teleport crystals randomly fail to work or even TeleFrag their users, [[spoiler: bosses can glitch out and die [[GameBreakingBug without opening the exit doors to their boss room]], [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame players die for real when their avatars do...]]]]

However, sometimes, this isn't the case. Software may be rushed for any number of [[TroubledProduction reasons]], which may include: [[ChristmasRushed A holiday release]], [[FollowTheLeader desire to compete with another company's product]], a [[OrphanedSeries studio's closing]], or [[CreatorsApathy outright laziness]]. When this happens, testing can be shortened or outright skipped. This results in buggy, unstable programs that no one likes.

Sometimes, this is just ExecutiveMeddling; different people do marketing and development, after all. Other times, though, some companies may have no choice. Not all companies have enough time, discipline, or money to go through all the development stages for what they're planning, so they have to release the product and hope enough people will buy it that they'll have the resources to perfect the product later. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_access early access]] model is a way of doing this by essentially allowing any paying customer to be a "public beta" tester.

However, sometimes, this isn't the case. Software may be rushed for any number of reasons, which may include: [[ChristmasRushed A holiday release]], [[FollowTheLeader desire to compete with another company's product]], a [[OrphanedSeries studio's closing]], or [[CreatorsApathy outright laziness]]. When this happens, testing can be shortened or outright skipped. This results in buggy, unstable programs that no one likes.

* The Valve Steam Deck was released in 2022 with what most reviewers described as excellent hardware and software they were optimistic would improve. Like many releases of its time, the [=COVID-19=] pandemic had affected development. In order to release the device on schedule, Valve worked hard to get the hardware right (minus a small issue with some fans that wasn't noticed until a third party case with a magnetic stylus clamp was discovered to keep them from spinning), and planned to fix the software post-release. Tellingly, the first public previews (handled by Website/YouTube channels Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus) were given very tight non-disclosure rules about the software, allowed to show 6 game selected by Valve and nothing of the Deck's actual OS. For what it's worth, the Deck was in good shape by third quarter 2022, a point where Valve was still filling pre-orders placed on the very first day they were live. The promised official dock for the Deck didn't go up for sale until 2023, even though it was promised in the initial reveal in 2021.

* The B-36 was like the B-29, except more troublesome. Due to being mounted ''backwards'' (as pushers), its engines had such a tendency to spontaneously catch fire that in at least one instance the engine was shut down and the mission was allowed to continue on the remaining five. Needless to say, it didn't end well - not because of that fire, but because of the ''others that followed''.

** The Boeing B-29 Superfortress suffered from numerous reliability problems, most famously the overtaxed engines that would sometimes set themselves on fire in flight. In this case the problems due to the need to rush the new bomber into production during the height of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and they were ironed out by the time the B-29D was designed (and re-christened as the B-50A Superfortress in 1948, just in time for WWII to end three years beforehand).
** The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, including its notorious battery fires.
** The most infamous of all was the 737 MAX. This was the first time Boeing shipped a civil plane with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. The goal of MCAS was to have the MAX have similar flight characteristics of the previous 737 NG, as the engines of the MAX caused it to pitch up in certain maneuvers. Rather than do a lengthy redesign of the airplane's structure to accommodate for this, and Boeing's desire to have the plane certified as yet another version of the 737 to reduce training costs, Boeing instead decided to fix this with software using MCAS. The biggest problem was MCAS could override pilot input and it was not obvious it was in control as it directly acted on the flight surfaces (other safety features tended to act on the pilot's controls). For whatever reason, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also allowed Boeing to remove the mentioning of MCAS in flight manuals and did not do a safety analysis since a previous version of MCAS was approved already. In short: Boeing used software to fix a hardware issue in order to save money and the FAA assumed since it was the same thing used on a previous plane Boeing made, it was fine. The result? Two accidents where 346 people died, the 737 MAX grounded for a better part of the year, and a huge credibility loss on FAA's part.
* The B-36 was like that, except more so. Due to being mounted ''backwards'' (as pushers), its engines had such a tendency to spontaneously catch fire that in at least one instance the engine was shut down and the mission was allowed to continue on the remaining five. Needless to say, it didn't end well - not because of that fire, but because of the ''others that followed''.

* A key plot point of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' is that the Securitron robots that Mr. House uses to protect and police New Vegas are using a buggy operating system that doesn't have drivers for their primary weapon systems. He's made due for the past 210 years using the secondary weapon systems: submachineguns and a 20mm grenade launcher. The game's primary MacGuffin, the Platinum Chip, is a bug fixed, 2.0 version of the Securitron OS, made but not delivered in the last days before the Great War. Recovering it and using it as House instructs will unlock the Securitrons' primary weapons: Gatling lasers and missile launchers (also turning the image on their central screen from a cartoon cop to a cartoon soldier). And the installation where you do so also has an order of magnitude more Securitrons than are online in the city proper, ready to be switched on.

* Early buyers of the Touch Bar [=MacBook Pro=] had to deal with a laundry list of issues: [[http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/10/14225716/apple-macbook-pro-consumer-reports-battery-life-issue-update-bug inconsistent battery life,]] [[http://www.cultofmac.com/455700/video-glitches-plague-new-macbook-pro/ glitchy graphics cards]], [[https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/21/2016-macbook-pro-keyboard-issues/ unresponsive keyboards]], [[https://www.apple.com/support/13-inch-macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-service-program/ drive failure]], [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2018/08/09/tech-apple-macbook-pro-2018-speakers-problem-broken/#3b267bc43c58 speaker crackles]], [[https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/apple-apologizes-issues-update-for-macbook-pro-thermal-throttling/ thermal throttling]], and [[https://www.macrumors.com/guide/flexgate-macbook-pro-display-issue/ display malfuctions]]. The battery issues caused ''Consumer Reports'' to decline recommending them, the first time it had done so for an Apple laptop. While firmware updates remedied some of these issues, the infamous "butterfly" keyboard that was used in Apple's laptops and was prone to key failure couldn't, which has been regarded as one of their most half-baked product features, and they went back to their old keyboard design in 2019.

* Early buyers of the Touch Bar [=MacBook Pro=] had to deal with a laundry list of issues: [[http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/10/14225716/apple-macbook-pro-consumer-reports-battery-life-issue-update-bug inconsistent battery life,]] [[http://www.cultofmac.com/455700/video-glitches-plague-new-macbook-pro/ glitchy graphics cards]], [[https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/21/2016-macbook-pro-keyboard-issues/ unresponsive keyboards]], [[https://www.apple.com/support/13-inch-macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-service-program/ drive failure]], [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2018/08/09/tech-apple-macbook-pro-2018-speakers-problem-broken/#3b267bc43c58 speaker crackles]], [[https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/apple-apologizes-issues-update-for-macbook-pro-thermal-throttling/ thermal throttling]], and [[https://www.macrumors.com/guide/flexgate-macbook-pro-display-issue/ display malfuctions]]. The battery issues caused ''Consumer Reports'' to decline recommending them, the first time it had done so for an Apple laptop. While firmware updates remedied some of these issues, the infamous "butterfly" keyboard that was used on Apple's laptops and prone to key failure couldn't, which has been regarded as one of their most half-baked product features, and they went back to their old keyboard design in 2019.

* Early buyers of the Touch Bar [=MacBook Pro=] had to deal with a laundry list of issues: [[http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/10/14225716/apple-macbook-pro-consumer-reports-battery-life-issue-update-bug inconsistent battery life,]] [[http://www.cultofmac.com/455700/video-glitches-plague-new-macbook-pro/ glitchy graphics cards]], [[https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/21/2016-macbook-pro-keyboard-issues/ unresponsive keyboards]], [[https://www.apple.com/support/13-inch-macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-service-program/ drive failure]], [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2018/08/09/tech-apple-macbook-pro-2018-speakers-problem-broken/#3b267bc43c58 speaker crackles]], [[https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/apple-apologizes-issues-update-for-macbook-pro-thermal-throttling/ thermal throttling]], and [[https://www.macrumors.com/guide/flexgate-macbook-pro-display-issue/ display malfuctions]]. The battery issues caused ''Consumer Reports'' to decline recommending them, the first time it had done so for an Apple laptop.

* Certain [[Franchise/LeapFrog [=LeapFrog=] Epic]] units (e.g. those sold in Walmart with DISA activation built in; Academy Edition units are unaffected) with firmware version 1.7.18 had a major bug where streaming videos are unable to play back properly regardless of site (e.g. [=YouTube=], Creator/{{Netflix}} or Vimeo), if at all, which is egregious as parents have bought the tablets for children to watch their favourite cartoons on. And to rub salt into the wound, [=LeapFrog=] isn't apparently arsed to fix the issue and has dismissed complaints as having nothing to do with the firmware itself and [[PlausibleDeniability blaming]] it on some third-party app they don't support, much to the ire of parents who have spent $50 or more on what would essentially be a defective product. That is unless you're a tech-savvy person or a parent who happens to be a hacker -- one [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpUgI8ZSkP4 workaround]] is to replace the default firmware with a signed backup of the latest Academy Edition ROM.

* The Valve Steam Deck was released in 2022 with what most reviewers described as excellent hardware and software they were optimistic would improve. Like many releases of its time, the [=COVID-19=] pandemic had affected development. In order to release the device on schedule, Valve worked hard to get the hardware right (minus a small issue with some fans that wasn't noticed until a third party case with a magnetic stylus clamp was discovered to keep them from spinning), and planned to fix the software post-release. Tellingly, the first public previews (handled by YouTube channels Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus) were given very tight non-disclosure rules about the software, allowed to show 6 game selected by Valve and nothing of the Deck's actual OS. For what it's worth, the Deck was in good shape by third quarter 2022, a point where Valve was still filling pre-orders placed on the very first day they were live. The promised official dock for the Deck didn't go up for sale until 2023, even though it was promised in the initial reveal in 2021.

** The capacitors that supply and clean power to the CELL & RSX are NEC TOKIN capacitors which have a notoriously high fail rate. With age these capacitors lose their ability to deliver higher power requirements demanded by games released towards the end of the systems life and would eventually become one of the causes of "YLOD's" [[note]] Yellow light of death which indicates general hardware failure. There is also the "RLOD", Red light of death indicating overheating and the "GLOD", the green light of death which indicates either a defective RSX, display chip or HDD [[/note]] Some of the original 90nm RSX chips used in the early revisions were also defective out the gate and would deteriorate over time to the point artifacts, severe graphical issues and freezing would occur, sometimes from mere ''seconds'' turning the system on. The [=Blu-Ray=] drive can also stop working and cannot be replaced as they are keyed to the system they are made for without hacking to replace the internal key data with a new drive. It would take over ''eight'' internal revisions and the second revision of the Slim in 2010 to fix the glaring design flaws present in the older models by drastically reducing the chip size from 90nm to 40/45nm to drastically reduce power use and heat generation, replacing the NEC capacitors with Tantalum capacitors to better deliver power, soldering the heat spreader's directly onto the CELL and using better thermal compound on the RSX,intergrating the [=Blu-Ray=] board onto the motherboard to allow drive swapping, redesigning the power supply and fan to remove heat more efficiently and stripping out the [=PlayStation 2=] hardware, card reader's and 2 USB ports.

* Quite a number of books in Literature/TolkiensLegendarium published after his death are essentially heavily spruced-up and reedited drafts of varying completeness. This is most evident in ''Literature/UnfinishedTales'', which even in its title points out that none of the stories involved were ever close to publication, with characters appearing and vanishing, [[OrphanedReference references to discarded pieces of lore]], multiple different accounts of the same events, and one story, the tale of Tuor, essentially [[NoEnding ending mid-scene]] and being followed by a rough outline of what would have happened next.

* The original Xbox's "Duke," controller proved an impediment to the console's adoption overseas. Microsoft hadn't tested it for markers other than the US, and the average hand size in other markers meant many customers couldn't physically hold the enormous controller comfortably. It was eventually phased out in favor of the smaller Controller S, from which all later Microsoft controllers are descended. Though there was a brief time where Duke controllers were available for the Xbox One more than a decade later.

* The Valve Steam Deck was released in 2022 with what most reviewers described as excellent hardware and software they were optimistic would improve. Like many releases of its time, the [=COVID-19=] pandemic had affected development. In order to release the device on schedule, Valve worked hard to get the hardware right (minus a small issue with some fans that wasn't noticed until a third party case with a magnetic stylus clamp was discovered to keep them from spinning), and planned to fix the hardware post-release. By the third quarter of 2022, the Deck was in good shape. The promised official dock for the Deck didn't go up for sale until 2023, even though it was promised in the initial reveal in 2021.

* The Valve Steam Deck was released in 2022 with what most reviewers described as excellent hardware and software they were optimistic would improve. Like many releases of its time, the [=COVID-19=] pandemic had affected development. In order to release the device on schedule, Valve worked hard to get the hardware right (minus a small issue with some fans that wasn't noticed until a third party case with a magnetic stylus clamp was discovered to keep them from spinning), and planned to fix the hardware post-release. By the third quarter of 2022, the Deck was in good shape.
** The promised official dock for the Deck didn't go up for sale until 2023, even though it was promised in the initial reveal in 2021.

'''Attention: This trope is ONLY meant for games that are genuinely nigh unplayable at release. A few missing features, oversights and bugs do ''not'' count.'''

Before releasing a product, it must be tested, and video games and computer programs are no different. Software is tested in stages; while the exact number and terminology varies between companies, they typically include two phases called "alpha" and "[[UsefulNotes/BetaTest beta]]". Alpha testing is done by the developers themselves, while beta testing is done by a specific, outside quality assurance team. In late phases of beta testing (this phase rarely called "gamma", "open beta", or "release candidate"), select members of the public are allowed to test the game. During alpha and beta tests, testers seek out bugs, note them, and forward them to the parties responsible for fixing them. Those developers then either fix the bug, delay the fix due to whatever time or business constraints, or declare that it "will not be fixed". Ideally, testing will last long enough to fix the most noticeable bugs.

->''"Playing this game is like driving a beat up old car. You're always afraid it's going to break down."''

** The other notorious example of this besides the Black Watch was the [[http://rk.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/vehicles/c5.htm Sinclair C5]], an early attempt at an electric vehicle touted as a replacement for the car at a time when no electric battery could power one. The result amounted to a motorised tricycle that could only go as little as 10 km before sputtering out (which, again, varied based on the weather), had great difficulty ascending gentle slopes, and left the driver exposed to the elements (during one of the modern UK's coldest winters, at that). That last one combined with its low height also meant it was very much possible for a C5 driver to have a semi-trailer's exhaust pipe blasting in their face. The C5 flopped just as badly as the Black Watch did, and this time, Sinclair wasn't so lucky: with the NEB having fallen by then, he had no choice but to sell his "Sinclair" brand computer products to his rivals at Amstrad (of [[UsefulNotes/AmstradCPC CPC]] fame) just to keep his company alive.

* In episode 5 of ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'', the characters play an MMO game using virtual reality headsets. The game is in a playable state, but the first enemies they encounter haven't even been programmed with attacks yet, nor does the main character Kodaka have any abilities to use despite being a "wizard". There are also balancing issues as the boss they fight is a bit too tough, though their healer is taking a nap at the time (since she's only a ten-year-old) and they don't coordinate their moves very well either.
* ''Literature/DoYouLoveYourMomAndHerTwoHitMultiTargetAttacks'' takes place in what is explicitly a closed beta test of a video game. Several of the features are noted as being unfinished. Many of the background characters lack textures and the tutorial area skybox is a grid.

* Wikia, a wiki hoster, introduce a new page skin that simply does not work the way it is supposed to while also managing to cut the usable page in half (the other half permanently displaying useless information that ''cannot be minimized to give space''). Worst of all, not only did they force the skin as the default so that not logged in users are forced to use it, they also removed the much more popular and infinitely more functional skin "Monaco".