EA Dice is set to hold technical playtests for Battlefield 2042 next week, allowing select players to try the highly-anticipated FPS before its release
According to email invites sent out by the developer (and seen by VGC), EA Dice will hold six Battlefield 2042 playtest sessions between August 12 and August 15. Five of these playtests are set to last three hours while the sixth is set to last nine hours.
This technically playtest was initially mean to take place in July, but was delayed to "later this summer" to give the EA Dice more time to test crossplay functionality.
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Announcing the playtest delay last month, the developer confirmed in a blog post that crossplay is “a function we’re looking to build and test for Battlefield 2042”, with the playtest allowing for PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PS5 players to test playing together.
If you want to be in with a chance of taking part in the Battlefield 2042 technical playtest, then make sure to sign up for the EA Playtesting program. If you’re one of the lucky players chosen, then you will be contacted – but it’s worth noting that this is only open to "a few thousand participants" (US and Europe only). These players will be invited to play in a closed environment under NDA.
Following this, in September, EA Dice will run a Battlefield 2042 open beta, with those who have pre-ordered the game able being able to get early access. Details on how this open beta will work haven't been shared yet.
What PC specs are needed for the playtest?
In addition to revealing dates for Battlefield 2042's technical playtests, EA Dice also revealed the minimum and recommended PC specifications required for the playtest - and they're not as demanding as we would have expected. Check them out below:
Minimum specs:
OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor (AMD): AMD FX-8350
Processor (Intel): Core i5 6600K
Memory: 8GB
Video Memory: 4GB
Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon RX 560
Graphics card (NVIDIA): Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
DirectX: 12
Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Recommended specs:
OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor (AMD): AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Processor (Intel): Intel Core i7 4790
Memory: 16GB
Video Memory: 8GB
Graphics card (AMD): Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
Graphics card (NVIDIA): AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
DirectX: 12
Analysis: Playtests galore
We've heard the phrase "technical playtest" a lot recently. Halo Infinite recently held a multiplayer technical playtest, allowing players to try out its Academy and Slayer modes - with developer 343 Industries planning to host another focused on PvP.
But what does a technical playtest do? The point of them is to allow select players to try out a game before release, with the players then feeding back to developers on any technical issues they encountered in the game such as bugs, crashes or other design flaws.
Technical playtests typically roll out before a beta to allow the developers to address any major technical issues in a game first and foremost - with a smaller, more manageable group. A beta then typically serves to gather overall feedback on gameplay and any remaining issues players have.
It's unclear which aspects of Battlefield 2042 will be available to play in next week's technical playtest. The FPS offers three multiplayer experiences: All-Out War, Hazard Zone and Battlefield Portal. However, so far we only have details on Battlefield Portal and All-Out War, with Hazard Zone details to be revealed ahead of release. Our money is on All-Out War being the focus of the playtests, as this seems to be the game's core mode, though this hasn't been confirmed.
