DICE’s upcoming entry in the Battlefield series is currently being developed and has already undergone quite a bit of playtesting up to this point. DICE however have only recently announced an invite-only pre-alpha playtest for fans that will begin on May 23rd and only run for 72 hours.
This will function as a server performance test in Europe, North America, and select segments of Asia, in an effort to “verify server performance and stability with increased player counts” during the 72-hour playtesting window of a handful of selected maps and modes.
DICE have been utilizing Battlefield Labs for a while now, but up until now it has only consisted of a small team of playtesters that were allowed in. This upcoming test period will be the largest group of people getting hands on the game so far and should prove to be a hopeful step towards improvement based on player feedback.
With this upcoming server test and all of the previous playtesting the game has undergone as part of the Battlefield Labs program, it’s only a matter of time before DICE are able to produce a much higher quality product than their last few releases. According to DICE, Battlefield Labs playtesting has already allowed for the developers to increase stability and improve balance across many aspects of the game.
Once the playtesting window has closed, each of the participating gamers will have their access to the game revoked and will be bound by a non-disclosure agreement to not speak about or share their experience with anyone until the game’s official release. Even with the NDAs, there have already been a few leaks from early playtesting prior to this new window; Maybe more than just a few leaks.
If fans want to sign up for a chance to be selected for this 72-hour playtesting period, they must visit Battlefield Labs via the EA playtesting website, fill out a survey, and hope they are selected for the limited pool of invited playtesters.
The new Battlefield is primed to be officially revealed this Summer, with DICE shooting for a release before March of next year. Optimistically the playtests will prove beneficial, and the team at DICE will take the criticisms and feedback from their testers to create a quality game for fans of the series.
Official details below:
