- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Stages:
-Early Development (nothing really works yet, major coding is being done)
-Alpha (things will run and resemble a game but a lot is missing and borken)
-Beta (this actually resembles a game's final form pretty well and *can* be a lot of fun, but there are still some things missing and lots of bugs
-Final Candidates (damn near ready for release, but there are still a few bugs that need to be ironed out, though these can be difficult to find)
-Gold Master (This is the final version of the game and will be sent to duplication)
Those are pretty much the names people use. The beta stage however often takes many months to complete, trust me, I used to work in Quality Assurance. Bungie is right on track.