These Are Not The Beta Invites You Are Looking For (waves hand)

Having just announced that a new wave of beta invites were going out, Bioware kindly sent out a load of emails soliciting feedback for playing the beta, and inviting us to pre-order. Unfortunately those who received said emails had not played in the beta, and may well have already pre-ordered.

This would have been a confusing situation, were it not for the fact that Bioware very quickly posted that the emails were sent out in (human) error, and sorry and all that.

Luckily, Stephen Reid was on hand to administer the appropriate ... punishment:

We can't apologize enough for getting your hopes up. Sorry again. Those responsible will endure a thousand years in the Sarlacc Pit.

source.

Hopefully today we should have more news on testing in general:

We sent both NA and EU invites in the last 48 hours. More news on testing is coming tomorrow.

source. 

What is interesting is the other email that was sent. This one advertises the pre-order and encourages the beta tester to pre-order so they can continue their saga.

Now I don't blame them for this, but it is clear that they want to convert Beta Weekend testers into pre-orders. Now this is why, in my mind, they will never just limit the testing to people with pre-orders, or give priority to people with pre-orders. Let's face it, if you pre-ordered, chances are you will be playing Star Wars The Old Republic at launch anyway. Bioware don't need to convince you to part with some money and play the game. Whereas if you didn't pre-order and you got into a Beta Weekend, you might decide to pre-order afterward, and success, one more pre-order and player. So to limit betas to just pre-orders is silly, they want to get anyone who expressed an interest in to see the game and influence their decision to buy it.

Let's hope the news on testing coming "soon" is good news.