In recent years many new pieces of software have offered users the opportunity to enter into an ‘early access’ phase of development, either for free or for the price of the final product.
It’s important to note that if users need to pay to enter into early access, they are offered the final product at launch.
But is it worth paying to gain early access, to essentially test a program? Especially when it’s common knowledge in the computing world that testing a program is also known as being a beta tester, which is a paid job.
Beta testers are users who test a functioning piece of software in order to iron out bugs before the software is released. This is not a entertaining process. Running into bugs when trying to use a piece of software is frustrating, to continuously do this process intentionally is not going to be entertaining.
To pay for the privilege too, well you’re just asking for people to get angry at your software before its even released.