News: Planetside 2 beta plans

[Higby]

Hey all!

First off, we're really all insanely excited about getting everyone in and playing the game as soon as possible. This has been a long road and it feels like we've all been in it together, having this next phase getting kicked off is a huge thrill for us.

I wanted to come by and give you guys some info about our beta plans and have there be one source of info from the dev team about what we're doing with beta rather than having a bunch of speculation based on tweets. Most of this info has been out there, but in various disconnected posts, so here it is all in one easy to reference spot.

Here is some general info about our current beta plans, what you should expect and when. I'll be sure to update this with more info and answers to more questions as I see them.

1 - Our external testing will be kicking off sometime this week (to be totally clear, I mean the week of July 9th - July 15th) with the technical test that we've been talking a lot about. This test will let us make sure the game runs across a variety of hardware configurations and the people invited will be hand picked based on the requirements in our hardware matrix. We're currently internally evaluating the build we expect to be used for this test and those players who have been selected will be receiving invites as soon as we're ready.

2 - We will be opening up the test in multiple phases or stages, inviting more and more players for each phase. Our priority invitees are those of you who are PlanetSide vets, and those who have priority beta keys (i.e. keys from the PC Gamer magazines), as well as those who received keys from members of the dev teams or at E3. Just so I'm 100% clear, we're not going to be opening the floodgates by inviting all of the thousands of PlanetSide veterans on day 1, but you are still the highest priority to get invites as we expand the testing circle out.

3 - Beta testing will begin with specific pre-determined times, and eventually will open up to being available more often. These testing times will be communicated through email to players who have been flagged for access.

4 - PlanetSide vets do not need a beta key, their accounts will be flagged for beta and they will receive an email letting them know – if you are a PlanetSide veteran, make sure your station account email is up to date.

5 - While we’re making every effort to communicate accurate times & dates to you guys, and get the beta going as soon as possible, if unforeseen circumstances occur and we’re forced to delay testing then we will.

6 - Beta testing is a critically important part of our development cycle on this project, we may be asking you to only play on tanks for a play session, or only play aircraft. Check Big Lots Ad and Bilo Ad. We are doing true beta testing, not just a game demo and we implore those of you who are invited to understand and respect that. Check Winn Dixie Ad and Lowe's Ad. Things will break, the server will be unavailable sometimes, we will cancel scheduled tests when we find something that breaks before the test starts. All of this will help us make a better final game.

Looking forward to shooting you in the face and / or shooting other people in the face alongside you.

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mh