What could be changed 4 months prior to final release?

I was wondering if a company would make any drastic measures to a game if in four months the final version would come out.

I mean say I got a hold of a beta that was four months earlier than the final version... could there be different stuff on it than the final build?

 

Well yeh obviously, depends on the development company really.

 

Or if the game was for Dreamcast then they would probably just scrap it at that point.

 

Ou good, i'm liking what i'm hearing. thanks for the responses!

 

If you look at the Sonic 2 betas that are available, there are pretty big changes just days before release, as I remember.

 

Hehe yeah. They put a new title screen in like 1-2 days before final. They also put in Supersonic code like 8 hours before final, IIRC.

 

It depends on the company and the time given to the game for pre=production.

For some studios 4 months till release could simply just be big fixes and minor changes. Yet for some studio a huge chunk of the game could change with in that time period. Hell for a lot of studios critical game specific optimization are done in the last 4 months of a game. Yet do realize that a game must go through Tech Requirements for the platform it is on. Some platforms need a game to be done 1 month prior to release, others can require up to 2-3 months.

 

The game I was talking about is Street Fighter III: Third Strike for Dreamcast. The preview I JUST BOUGHT was released 4 months before final release.

I wonder if they would still possibly have some arcade code on there to be converted...?

 

In that case, since it's a port job, I doubt you will find much all that different. Sure on the Disc it self you might find debug files but that's about it.

 

Really? The QA must be happy!

 

thats all i'm hoping for really. that would actually be pretty sweet if there was a debug menu.