Star Wars Battlefront: Beta Launch Date Revealed

Star Wars Battlefront may not officially release until Nov. 17, but the game isn’t as far, far away as you may think. In fact, you’ll be able to play it sooner than you think.

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Electronic Arts has unveiled the date when the Beta version of the game will be available: Thursday, Oct. 8. On that day, the test version of the game will launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, allowing players to try out the game while also unearthing any bugs or glitches that EA and the game’s developer, DICE, still need to fix.

You’ll be able to download the game online via each system’s respective marketplace. For PlayStation and Xbox gamers, you’ll need 7 GBs of space, while PC users will have to set aside 11 GBs for their version. Since the PC version is so large, EA will allow PC users to begin downloading the game a day early, on Oct. 7.

The beta will last for five days until Oct. 12, and it will be limited in several aspects. Players won’t be able to advance beyond level five, and none of the rankings or unlockables they achieve will transfer to the final version of the game. Everything you do in the beta will be erased once it ends.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth playing. For one thing, you’ll get to try out three of the game’s modes on three different planets. Players can try out Walker Assault, a massive 40-player skirmish set on the ice planet of Hoth; Drop Zone, where teams of eight players must protect random pods dropping out of the sky on Sullust; and Survival Mission, where you fend off wave after wave of fighers and vehicles on Tatooine.

You can play the Battlefront beta by yourself or online with a friend. If you’re both playing on the same system, then you can also do a split-screen co-op option.

Finally, there’s a Star Wars Battlefront companion game designed to keep players hooked on the game even after you turn off your gaming system or PC. It’s called Base Command, and it essentially functions as a strategic card game where you can earn benefits to be used in Battlefront. You can also check out your progress and your friends’ progress in Battlefront using the game.

This companion game will only be available during the beta online here, but there are plans for it to expand to mobile devices when Battlefront officially launches.

One weird thing about the “Companion experience,” as EA calls it: It assumes we’ll actually be able to put Battlefront down for more than a few hours. No doubt that’ll be tough to do once the beta gets you addicted to the game.

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