Trackmania Turbo beta is console only, but a free demo is coming

Trackmania Turbo

Ubisoft announced today that Trackmania Turbo will be playable in an open beta that will begin at 9 am ET on March 18 and run until 9 am ET on March 21. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, the beta is for “new-gen consoles” only, those being the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. But the PC crowd isn't being left out in the cold entirely.

“As Trackmania is historically a franchise that has been built on PC, we wanted to focus special attention on our infrastructures on consoles to ensure the best possible experience to all players at launch,” a Ubisoft spokesperson explained. “The objective of this open beta is to stress test these infrastructures with a large number of players right before launch to ensure the smoothest launch possible.”

But Trackmania also has a history of providing free demos—the Stadium, Canyon, and Valley freebies—and Trackmania Turbo will follow that tradition as well. “PC players will be able to discover the game through a free trial that will be available once the game has launched,” the rep said.

How exactly the trial will work, whether it will be time-limited or offer a small selection of tracks or do something else entirely, wasn't explained, but past demos have been pretty generous and I would hope that this one will be too. Trackmania Turbo will be out on March 25.

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.