DICE has confirmed the dates for Battlefield 5’s upcoming open beta. For those who pre-ordered the game or subscribe to Origin Access Premier, EA Access, or Origin Access Basic, the open beta will start on September 4th. Everyone else on Xbox One, PS4, and PC can play it on September 6th.
Gamescom attendees can check out the open beta’s content on the show floor in Hall 6 for Xbox One X and PC. Along with Arctic Fjord being playable in Conquest and Grand Operations, there’s also the recently revealed Rotterdam map playable in Conquest mode.
On top of this, DICE demonstrated the power of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX technology during the GPU manufacturer’s Gamescom keynote. Check it out below. Regarding the RTX demo, DICE technical director Christian Holmquist said, “It’s always been important to us as a studio to stay one step ahead as we look to increase the graphical fidelity in games.
“With this new NVIDIA RTX platform, more detail than ever before can now be seen on the battlefield, from recognizing the flash of a muzzle being reflected off a car to spotting the detailed reflection of a devastated facade in a splash of water on the ground. Things in the environment will feel more lifelike and real and all-out war will never look the same.”
Tony Tamasi, Senior Vice President of Content and Technology at Nvidia, added, “We’ve been close partners with DICE for many years and we’ve spent much of the last year deeply embedded with their team in Stockholm to bring this vision to life. With the help of NVIDIA RTX, DICE is creating a revolutionary moment for computer graphics in Battlefield 5, as ray tracing has been used in film for years and has long been considered the Holy Grail for real-time rendering in games.”
Battlefield 5 sparked some concern recently over its pre-order numbers, with analyst firm Cowen calling them “weak”. We’ll find out for ourselves how the game performs when it releases on October 19th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.