It looks like the beta for Battlefield 2042 could open in under a week’s time, if the pre-order listing on an Italian website is anything to go by.
As spotted on Reddit, Italian retailer Mediaworld has claimed that the early access beta would be going live on Monday, September 6, before the listing was deleted. You can still see it here thanks to the magic of the Way Back Machine.
- Everything you need to know about Battlefield 2042
- The best PC games you should be playing right now
- Plus: Cyberpunk 2077’s Xbox Series X and PS5 updates could slip to 2022
If you don’t speak Italian, this is what Google Translate makes of the text in question: “buy by 03.09.2021 in presale this product you will receive access to the early beta of the video game from 06.09 to 11.09.”
Clunky, yes — and slightly confusing given Europeans use the DD/MM/YY approach to dates — but the meaning is hard to dispute: pre-order by tomorrow and you’ll get access to the beta from next Monday to Saturday.
Given the pre-order cut-off date is so close, it’s slightly odd that the listing has been removed. You would have thought that EA would want to shout about this pre-order incentive from the rooftops, but apparently not.
Though the company has previously revealed that pre-ordering any version of the game will allow beta access, it refused to confirm or deny the exact dates in question. When asked, the company would only reconfirm that “our open beta release window is September,” according to Videogame Chronicles.
Although beta access comes with every pre-order, there are specific perks that EA is reserving for the more expensive packages. Those paying $90 to $120 for the PC or console ‘Gold’ and ‘Ultimate’ editions of the game will get early access to the game starting on October 15; a week before the title becomes available to everyone on September 22.
Those extra seven days could be crucial practice, given Battlefield 2042 is an exclusively multiplayer experience, with the only single-player option being battles against bots. A lot of bots, too, given the game now supports matches of up to 128 players — although only if you’re playing on PC, Xbox Series X/S or PS5 unfortunately, with last-generation players having to make do with ‘just’ the 64.
