Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 release date and beta tests announced

YouTube

The Warhammer 40,000 outer space RTS Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 will be out on January 24, publisher Focus Home Interactive announced today, and will be preceded by two "pre-order betas," the first of which will begin in early December.

The December beta will run for a week, with all 12 factions, full multiplayer progression, and 1v1, 2v2, and versus-AI battles. Once that wraps up, developer Tindalos will tweak, tune, and balance things in preparation for the second beta, which will kick off in January and run until the launch date. Beta 2 will include all the updates made after the first beta, plus the campaign prologue and the first sectors of two campaigns.

The first Battlefleet Gothic: Armada was actually quite good—difficult, and unbalanced in spots, but "the campaign’s story, script, voice acting and appearance is all spot-on," we said in our 80/100 review, and "the RPG elements are horribly compelling." Hopefully the sequel can build on that success.

The Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 beta tests will be open to everyone who pre-purchases the game, which you can do on Steam for 10 percent off the regular price, or 25 percent if you own the first game.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.