Epic Games said it expects this month's
Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta to attract a number of players "around the 1 million range."
Executive producer Rod Fergusson
told CVG the company is "not trying to set any records, we're not trying to beat anybody for highest number of players on a beta." The company's goal is to "get enough data to help us make a better game," he said.
Last year's beta for
Halo: Reach -- Bungie's largest multiplayer beta yet --
attracted 2.7 million players, most of whom received access via a prior purchase of
Halo: ODST.
Xbox 360 owners that purchased
Bulletstorm: Epic Edition will get first access to the
Gears of War 3 beta on April 18. Xbox Live Gold subscribers who pre-ordered the game from GameStop (in the U.S) or GAME and GameStation (in the U.K.) will get beta access on April 25.
The highly anticipated follow-up to 2008's
Gears of War 2 was originally planned for a full release this month, before being
delayed to a fall 2011 release window and later pegged for
a September 20 launch date.
Fergusson has
previously said the delay was made partly to give the development team a chance to incorporate feedback from the beta.
