Firewalk Studios’ upcoming debut game, the 5v5 team shooter Concord, is opening up to all PlayStation Plus members this weekend. Pre-order customers and PS Plus subscribers can try the multiplayer FPS beginning on Friday, July 12, at noon ET.
The beta window for the PS5 and PC game was initially only meant for pre-order customers. (If you already reserved the game, you’ll still get beta access and codes for friends, whether you subscribe to PS Plus or not.) Opening it up to PlayStation Plus members gives developer Firewalk Studios and publisher PlayStation Studios the bonuses of extra player feedback, server stress tests and the chance to catch bugs and work on balancing. And, of course, it lets them build extra hype for the new IP.
All 16 characters (“Freegunners” with somewhat nontraditional roles) will be unlocked and available during the Early Access weekend, which ends on July 14. PS5 players can pre-download the Concord Beta starting Thursday at noon ET. Meanwhile, an Open Beta will invite anyone to try the FPS next weekend (July 18 at noon ET through July 21).
Three game modes will be available during the Early Access this weekend. These include Clash Point (round-based, no-respawn matches where you try to capture a zone), Trophy Hunt (a respawn-based bounty-collecting mode) and Cargo Run (no-respawn mode where you retrieve a package, plant it in a zone and defend it). You can try four maps in the preview: Freewater, Star Chamber, Water Hazard and Shock Risk.
Next week’s Concord Open Beta will add a new mode, Area Control (teams compete to control zones with respawns enabled), and another map, the ominous-sounding Bone Mines.
The developers say your rewards will carry over from this weekend’s Early Access to next weekend’s Open Beta, but none will transfer to the game’s launch on August 23. Firewalk Studios listed the beta’s supported PC specs in its announcement blog post, although it cautions those could change before the final version.
Firewalk Studios is a Sony-owned team founded by (among others) three Bungie veterans who worked on the Destiny franchise. Others at the studio hail from Respawn, Activision and BioWare, fleshing out the team’s multiplayer shooter credentials. With Concord, the developers appear to borrow elements from Overwatch, Destiny and Halo while adding nontraditional player classes and narrative and character elements similar to Guardians of the Galaxy.
Concord arrives on August 23 for PS5 and PC. You can check out the gameplay trailer below.
