DICE has confirmed that the studio currently has no plans to stage a second Battlefield 5 multiplayer beta. The first beta came to an end last week, with fairly mixed results. DICE identified eight key areas for improvement following the event; these will be their priorities before the game’s launch in November. Although the game’s release has seen a delay of around a month, it seems that DICE will not take advantage of the time to run a second beta; although the studio did run a second impromptu closed alpha event back in August.
No Current Plans for a Second Battlefield 5 Multiplayer Beta
The announcement came via an exchange on Twitter. A fan asked Dan Mitre, the game’s Global Community Engagement Manager, whether there would be a second beta. Mitre responded that there was; “no 2nd Beta planned at the moment”. His Tweet does leave room for DICE to run a second beta; he merely clarifies that the studio has no current plans to do so, after all. Plans can certainly change. Indeed, the second closed alpha event held in August was likely not planned well ahead of time. While it may be possible that DICE could decide to run an impromptu second Battlefield 5 multiplayer beta, however, it seems unlikely at this stage.
– No 2nd Beta planned at the moment.
– More news on Firestorm access later, but obviously, we have this for now: https://t.co/g58NstgtOn
– This is me acknowledging your Tweet.— Mitre (@dan_mitre) September 17, 2018
Battlefield 5 is set to release in around two months’ time. Given that the studio recently announced an eight-point list of areas to tweak and improve, it seems likely that their focus will be on doing as much development as possible before the launch. Running a second beta would take away a lot of time from that; the requisite time spent monitoring servers, responding to feedback, and dozens of other tasks would all be a drain on resources. In addition, DICE may be concerned about overexposure. By definition, a beta does not represent the final product. However, if players have too many opportunities to play work-in-progress versions of the game, many could easily forget that. DICE could risk turning players off the game in such a case. In all likelihood, the best thing for DICE to do now will be to focus on development until the last possible moment.