Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Firewalk Studios have announced plans for two separate beta tests for the upcoming multiplayer hero shooter Concord.
The Concord Beta will kick off with an Early Access weekend that runs from Friday, July 12 through Sunday, July 14. This will be available on PS5 and PC for anyone who has pre-ordered the game. As this is a multiplayer game, anyone who pre-orders it will also be able to invite four friends to join them for the Early Access weekend.
Shortly afterward, the Concord Open Beta will launch. This will run from Thursday, July 18 through Sunday, July 21 and will be available to all players on PS5 and PC, regardless of pre-order status. Both Beta tests will offer optional cross-play support.
First revealed during the PlayStation Showcase in May 2023, Concord is a first-person, team-based shooter, in the same vein as Overwatch and Marvel Rivals. Players engage in 5v5 PvP matches across a variety of game modes and maps, and have access to a large roster of playable characters, called Freegunners, from the crew of the Northstar — a group of misfits, outlaws, and adventurers working as guns-for-hire.
Each of these Freegunners has unique abilities and skills that will come in handy as you take on rival crews across the Wilds of space. They also have their own colorful personalities that you'll learn more about through cinematic vignettes once the game launches. In fact, players will experience the beginning of the Northstar crew's story during the beta, which will feature the very first cinematic vignette. These brief cinematics will premiere weekly in-game and tell the story of the Northstar crew.
The Beta tests will include access to the full launch roster of Freegunners — which right now stands at 16 playable characters. Four maps — Freewater, Water Hazard, Star Chamber, and Short Risk — will be available during the Beta Early Access weekend with a fifth map, Bone Mines, coming in during the Open Beta weekend.
Additionally, there will be three game modes playable during the Early Access Beta weekend — Trophy Hunt, Cargo Run, and Clash Point — with a fourth mode, Area Control, added during the Open Beta weekend.
Trophy Hunt: A respawn-based mode where you fight to take down members of the rival crew and collect their bounty cards to earn points for your team. The first team to reach the target score before time runs out wins the match.
Cargo Run: A no-respawn mode where teams compete to retrieve the Blue Buddy robotic package delivery system, plant it at one of the zones, and defend it from the rival crew to win.
Clash Point: A round-based, no-respawn game mode where teams compete to control a single capture zone at a central location on the map.
Area Control: A respawn mode where teams compete to control multiple capture and control zones around the map. Control two or more zones to increase your team’s score and reach the point threshold to win.
Concord is set to launch on August 23 for PlayStation 5 and PC. The Standard Edition will cost $39.99 and include 16 playable Freegunners, 12 unique maps, and six team-based game modes. Additional Freegunners, maps, and modes will be added to the game through free post-launch updates. In addition to the Standard Edition is the Digital Deluxe Edition ($59.99) which includes additional cosmetics to personalize your characters as well as three days of Early Access so you can start playing ahead of the global launch.