Unfortunately, I've seen this happen a lot in game development. Especially a "beta" release that kind of gets out of hand with the number of participants and such.
I'm not sure what it is, but it seems developers get ahead of themselves adding this-that-and-the-other new shiny and bug fixes fall by the wayside until they're buried so deep in the code they become un-fixable.
I've been fortunate (...or unfortunate maybe?) to have been involved as a beta tester for quite a few games and software platforms over the years. With the exception of very very few, I've watched the same scenario play out.
It is very important from a developer's standpoint to keep
adding new features to not only keep the interest level of their
customer base up but that of their dev team as well and I understand
this. But it also has to be tempered with restraint and careful attention has to be paid to bug-fixing along the way.
One bug may not be a show stopper but if you add up 5, 10, or 20+ your customer base will eventually stop the show for you.
WGT - Please do not fall into the trap I've seen so many other developers fall into.