If you mean do you have to pay to use the beta, no. Many of the gaming houses seem to be partnering with GameSpy / File Planet for their beta test needs. The download and beta test is free to subscribers of GameSpy / File Planet. I joined the GameSpy founders club about a half year ago for easy access to patches and decent game servers. I have not been dissapointed. They offered Splinter Cell for download when I joined and now they have some hitpoint gimmick to earn Prince of Persia Sands of Time and other games. I haven't actually read what's involved though because I suspect it involves upgrading my founder account to something more for a nominal fee. The cost for a full year of the founders club was $79 US so I went ahead. As soon as I go to a game page with Game Spy Arcade it immediately informs me of any available patches and I can go to the download pages of File Planet for mods. Lately they have had game publishers offer beta tests to their subscribers so I find it all to the good. The theory behind these stress tests is to learn the real world limits of their servers and they state upfront that performance may seem degraded while they tune and learn where to set the limits for their servers. Anyway, I'm happy to help them learn where to set the limits and it helps me determine if I may actually want to buy these games when they make it into production.
Free