The latest Alpha update for Xbox is causing some issues for testers, as it resets consoles to factory settings. Xbox testers who installed the latest Alpha or Alpha Skip-Ahead builds found their consoles wiped clean. This is obviously not an ideal situation.
However, regular players won’t be affected, since this update is still in the testing phase. When it is eventually released to the wider public, it should be fixed (at least that’s the hope, as the problem is already known). So, let’s treat this situation as an interesting example of what can happen when you join early update programs and agree to help developers by testing. After all, if these updates were perfect and without risks, there would be no need for testing, and they would be released to everyone right away.
Are Games Affected?
Thankfully, games installed locally are not erased by this bug. Typically, the Alpha builds of the Xbox dashboard are stable and reliable, so issues like this are very rare. Again, this is just a part of the risks you take when joining such programs, but these situations aren’t frequent enough to discourage participation. At least, not frequent enough to avoid them entirely.
The early release of updates for some users in various programs is now very common, both for hardware and software. When you think about it, programs like Steam’s early access were created to allow developers and players to work together during the launch phase of games, offering a constant exchange of feedback and updates.
