Call of Duty: WWII beta will be free for everyone later this month

Call of Duty: WWII will get a PC beta on September 29, and the good news is you won't have to preorder to get access – anyone can jump aboard. It'll run for a whole weekend before wrapping up on October 2, and it'll take place on Steam.

According to Sledgehammer Games in their announcement, the beta is designed to stress test "core gameplay systems and online backend infrastructure at scale". It's also designed to give PC users a hands-on period with the game while the studio goes about its business fine tuning and optimising.

Here are the minimum required specs, but these won't necessarily apply to the full game, Sledgehammer warns. Recommended specs are still forthcoming.

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit or later
CPU: Intel® Core™ i3 3225 or equivalent
RAM: 8 GB RAM
HDD: 25 GB HD space
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 @ 2 GB / AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 @ 2GB or better
DirectX: Version 11.0 compatible video card or equivalent
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.