Dirty Bomb Offers Paid Closed Alpha Access, It's Not Cheap

Splash Damage's upcoming FPS Dirty Bomb has transitioned to a closed alpha phase which has me utterly confused as to what the difference between closed alpha and open alpha even is. If I had to take a guess, I would imagine it's the new term used for when developers take an alpha build out of just internal testing. It could also be a marketing term for "we don't want to pay real Q/A testers". Regardless, if players want in on the "closed alpha" they have to pay $120 for immediate access. WAIT WHAT!? Of course these things come with extra goodies, but still 120 dollars!? I better be able to put this down as Q/A experience on my resume for that price. Mind you that is the lowest tier that gives you immediate access. THE LOWEST!

Of course when games enter into any sort of testing phase they usually get a trailer and Dirty Bomb is no exception. The trailer highlights a new map tuning utility the team uses called Echo, which allows them to monitor where the action happens and tweak level design based on that feedback. While cool to watch I am fairly certain the tech behind this utility is something most serious FPS developers already have. If games continue to allow players in earlier and earlier, pretty soon we will have trailers talking about how awesome "closed early development access" is and how we should totally pay $500 for it. At that point I am pretty sure we hit Kickstarter pledge territory.

Gun Recoil is still notably absent in Dirty Bomb, but that's ok because its "closed alpha" guys!