Dual Universe beta starts in August, will require a monthly subscription fee

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It'll be a little under $6 per month when you pay for a year at a time.

Dual Universe "allows millions of players to interact with each other in a single, fully-editable world," declares the narrator in the trailer above. It's a spectacularly ambitious claim, which naturally makes a person wary—among all the other attempts, will this really be the giant voxel MMO sanbox that grips us? We should have a better idea after August 27, when Dual Universe enters beta.

It won't be a free beta, though. You don't see this too often anymore: The Dual Universe beta will cost a monthly subscription fee that ranges in price from about $5.83 to $7 depending on how many months you purchase at a time. Here's the breakdown:

  • 3 months: $20.97 
  • 6 months: $38.45
  • 12 months: $69.90

Alternatively, you can get beta access without a subscription and start playing Dual Universe now by buying an Alpha Pack (which will stop being sold soon), but note that the alpha's final content wipe will occur before the beta begins.

The release of the beta will also coincide with a lifting of the NDA currently in place for alpha players, meaning testers will be able to talk openly about their experiences with the game. I look forward to reporting on Dual Universe. Whether it succeeds or not, ambitious player-controlled sandboxes are almost always at least interesting.

Developer Novaquark has also released Dual Universe's cinematic opening, which you can watch below, and you can find out more about the sci-fi MMO on the official site. Dual Universe's full launch is planned for 2021, at which point Novaquark expects the subscription pricing to remain the same.

When we last checked in with Dual Universe during pre-alpha, a player had built a McDonalds in the game, because that's what you do in games that let you build things.

Tyler Wilde
Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.