Dirty Bomb beta goes live for good next week

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Dirty Bomb has been in closed beta for a while now, but availability has been restricted to specific, limited times—most recently, the weekend of March 6-9. But developer Splash Damage has revealed that the beta will become [ominous voice] fully operational next week, and that everyone who has a key will be able to play whenever they want.

"Thursday, March 26th is D-Day. At 9AM PDT/16:00 GMT Dirty Bomb will be back up for good," the studio announced in the Dirty Bomb forums. "Yes, the game is still in closed beta and everyone who has gotten a key will be able to play. What’s more is there will be no more planned wipes."

It's unfortunate that the beta remains closed, although on the upside Splash Damage doesn't seem too stingy about handing out keys. And with the Dirty Bomb Steam page still indicating a June 2015 launch, and the announcement promising more "cool info" to be revealed next week, a move to open beta could be coming soon.

We spent some time with Dirty Bomb last October, and came away, if not entirely sold, then at least reasonably optimistic about its chances. We'll be checking out the game again soon, but for now you can read what we made of it last time here.

Andy Chalk

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.