The Open Beta of Battlefield 2042 is set to start in early October on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Here you will find all the important information about the beta launch, how to sign up, and what is currently known.
Update, October 6: The beta starts today for pre-order customers. We will accompany the release and provide live coverage of the beta launch and potential issues. You can find everything about it in the Live Ticker for the Battlefield 2042 beta.
In addition, we were able to test the beta early at MeinMMO in a three-hour preview. You can find the first-hand report from our editor Benedict Grothaus here:
Battlefield 2042 Open Beta – Start, Preload, Download, Early Access
From October 8 at 9:00 AM, all players can participate. Before that, there will be a two-day early access phase. Here’s the official announcement.
Players participating in early access can start as early as October 6 at 9:00 AM.
Yes. You can download the Open Beta of Battlefield 2042 starting October 5.
The beta phase ends on October 10 at 9:00 AM. With early access, you have nearly four days, while others can test the beta for just over 3 days.
The beta will be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC (Steam, Origin, and Epic Games). However, owners of a PS4 or Xbox One will have to settle for a trimmed version of BF2042.
You probably don’t need to register separately for the beta, you just need to start the download during the corresponding period.
However, pre-order customers have two days of early access.
Depending on the platform, the beta requires between 17 and 19 GB.
The contents of the Open Beta of Battlefield 2042
What can you expect in the beta? According to official information, you can test one mode and one map during the beta phase. Here’s a quick summary:
- 4 of the 5 previously introduced specialists will be available in the beta
- You can play the “Conquest” mode
- The only map in the beta is “Orbital”
There is not much more information available. The contents apparently correspond to the technical alpha, which took place in mid-August.
What are the specialists? They are essentially the classes of Battlefield 2042, except players have significantly more freedom than in typical class systems in other games.
So far, five specialists have been introduced, four of whom will likely be in the beta:
- Assault – Webster Mackey
- Medic – Maria Falck
- Engineer – Piotr “Boris” Guskovsky
- Recon – Wikus “Casper” van Daele
The fifth specialist is not listed as content and will likely only be playable in the full version of Battlefield 2042. However, they appeared in a short film about the story.
The anti-cheat measures will be active during the Open Beta. According to an insider, there should also be crossplay.
Here you can watch gameplay from the beta preview:
We have also picked out and categorized 3 interesting details for you from the trailer.
Battlefield 2042 System requirements for the Open Beta
What should your PC be able to do? Over Twitter, Battlefield 2042 listed the system requirements for PC (via Twitter):
Here’s what your PC should be able to do at a minimum:
| Operating System (OS) | Windows 10, 64-bit |
| Processor (CPU) | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Intel Core i5 6600K |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Graphics Card Memory | 4 GB |
| Graphics Card (GPU) | AMD Radeon RX 560 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti |
| DirectX | 12 |
| Internet Connection | 512 KBPS or faster |
| Hard Drive Space: | 100 GB |
Here’s what your PC should be able to do according to the developers’ recommendations:
| Operating System (OS) | Windows 10, 64-bit |
| Processor (CPU) | AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Intel Core i7 4790K |
| RAM | 16 GB |
| Graphics Card Memory | 8 GB |
| Graphics Card (GPU) | AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 |
| DirectX | 12 |
| Internet Connection | 512 KBPS or faster |
| Hard Drive Space | 100 GB SSD |
It is currently unknown whether these system requirements also match the specs of the full version of Battlefield 2042.
Here you can find information about the Alpha of Battlefield 2042
Battlefield 2042 Alpha – Content and information from the leaks
How did the test go? The alpha started on August 12 and ran until August 17. The U.S. site “VideoGamesChronicle” reports that the playtest consisted of 6 sessions in total – 5 sessions of 3 hours each and one session of 9 hours (via videogameschronicle). However, there were problems during the test, leading to an extension.
The entire playtest was under an “NDA”. This is a type of confidentiality agreement, and alpha players were not allowed to publish any information about the test. They could not even talk about it. Even the email invitation to the test was not supposed to be published:
However, it turned out that some players did not take the NDA too seriously, leading to several leaks about the playtest. We have presented 5 of the biggest leaks here for you.
What was seen in the playtest? The leaked email indicates that the test was mainly focused on 3 points:
- Opinions on the gameplay loop
- Performance of BF2042
- Technical stability
The gameplay leaks also showed the content of the alpha. Apparently, only the map “Orbital” (the one with the rocket launch) was available in the alpha in the conquest mode of BF2042.
So far, hardly anyone has been able to play the new Battlefield 2042, and yet there is a noticeable hype surrounding the new shooter.
It will be exciting to see how the latest installment in the Battlefield series performs against the tough competition from Call of Duty and the new Halo.
When will Battlefield 2042 be released? The shooter was originally scheduled for release on October 22 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC (Steam, Origin, and Epic Games). EA has since postponed the date to November 19.
You can also find an overview with the most important information about Battlefield 2042 in our extensive special on the shooter.
What is Battlefield 2042 actually about? After Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V previously led the charge in World War settings, the latest installment of the series aims to provide a modern warfare scenario once again.
It even takes place several years into the future, but it won’t be a complete sci-fi scenario. Rather, the shooter resembles Battlefield 3 and 4 with some technological innovations and gadgets.
If you want to see moving images of Battlefield 2042, we have presented all previous trailers and some leaks from the alpha for you.
