Beta tests for games are an interesting phenomenon. Developers spend countless hours getting a game to a place where they feel like they're able to let people try it out. Then they use some unknown formula to determine who should be allowed to tell them all the things that they got wrong or just flat-out missed. Usually, wannabe beta testers either register through a website, or you gain access by purchasing a game (e.g. if you bought Crackdown early enough, you were in the Halo 3 beta).

But Sony has come up with a new wrinkle on test admittance. The Resistance 2 beta will begin in September, but in order to get in, you have to be a subscriber to Sony's interactive magazine Qore. And downloading the individual $3 episodes won't be good enough; you have to be a full-on $25 annual subscriber.

I can't put my finger on it, but there is something about this that just doesn't feel right to me. I think it must be the fact that Sony is so heavy-handed about getting people to subscribe to Qore. As I said, it's not the first time you've had to spend money to get into a beta, but it does mark the first time (that I can think of) that it has been presented in this way.

Oh and for those of you in Europe who haven't gotten Qore on your PSN yet: oh well. No beta for you (as of now.)

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