Gears of War 3 Multiplayer Beta Draws 1.29 Million Players, More than 11 Million Matches
Gears of War 3 scored some big numbers during its public multiplayer beta.
Being developed by Epic Games, Gears of War 3 is the conclusion to the trilogy. Marcus Fenix and humanity’s grueling war against the Locust and the mutating Lambent has reached a boiling point. Once again, the last remnants of mankind must fight for survival and prevent its total extinction.
The public multiplayer beta began April 18 and ended last Sunday. The beta was available to those who bought the exclusive “Epic Edition” of Bulletstorm for the Xbox 360. Players who owned the Epic Edition started the beta April 18. Another way to get into the beta was by pre-ordering the game at GameStop. Those who pre-ordered Gears 3 at GameStop began the beta April 25.
The beta ran on dedicated servers, a first for the series’ multiplayer. The Gears of War franchise has been criticized for not running on dedicated servers, which caused lag and other problems for the multiplayer. Favorite modes like King of the Hill were available for play on four all-new maps during the beta.
The Gears 3 beta had 1.29 million participants. More than 11 million matches were completed during the beta’s run. A further breakdown of how players got into the beta wasn’t provided.
Here are some additional stats from the beta:
- More than 249 years worth of gameplay time
- Players from 145 countries
- More than 927 million kills
- More than 131 million executions
- More than 23 million chainsaw kills
- Close to 23 billion fired shots
During the beta, players could earn unlocks that would transfer over to the retail release. The Thrashball Cole player skin was unlocked by 435,000 players. The alternative skin for Cole was unlocked by completing 50 games in any mode, and then playing an additional ten wearing the Thrashball skin. The Gold Retro Lancer gun was earned by 234,000 people. The Gold Retro Lancer was unlocked after finishing 90 games in any multiplayer mode and then getting 100 kills with the weapon.
Cliff Bleszinski, Design Director for Epic Games, said:
While the beta was a fun way to give players an early taste of our game, it also provided us with invaluable feedback to help us refine and polish ‘Gears of War 3’ to ensure it’s truly the culmination of the trilogy we promised to the fans.
Microsoft also announced that Gears of War 3 has reached more than a million pre-orders worldwide, setting a new record. This makes Gears 3 the fastest pre-ordered Xbox 360 exclusive game in the history of the system.
Gears of War 3 has a release date of Sept. 20. The regular version will retail for $59.99. Two additional versions, the Limited and Epic editions, will retail for $79.99 and $149.99 respectively.
Photo by Epic Games
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