Hello everyone! As you can see, no dev diary today, as we have some important announcement to make. Don't worry, the Dev Diary, about the Real-Time Tactical new features, will be published tomorrow.
The Beta Starts on March 27th
The first phase of the Steel Division 2 Beta, available for every player who pre-purchased the game, will start on March 27th and will be 48 hours long. The beta will then start again for a second 48-hours phase on the following week, and so on until release. We are aiming a total of 5 beta phases.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/919640/Steel_Division_2/
Each phase of the beta will allow us to gather as much feedback as possible from you. Besides classic bug fixing and optimization, this long beta will help us to improve the game and deliver the best tactical and strategic experience to you at the game's release.
On the first phase, you will have access to:
- Two Divisions: The 2nd GuardsTank Corps & the 5. Panzerdivision
- Three Game Modes: Conquest, Closer Combat and Breakthrough, featuring the brand-new Defensive Structures
- Two Maps, including Orsha North
Every phase of the beta will see new content to discover. Time to update your drivers and make some room on your hard drive!
Releasing the game on May 2nd
As a result, the game will be available on May 2nd instead of April 4th, and owners of any Digital Deluxe Edition (Total Conflict, Commander Deluxe & General Deluxe) will be able to play the game from April 30th.
Delaying a game is never an easy choice, but the producing the best game possible is our main priority, and we feel that your feedback during the Beta will help us achieving this goal.
Steel Division 2 is, in terms of content, a huge, ambitious game. Even in the Standard Edition, the game will feature, at release:
- Army General, 4 Turn-based Strategic Campaigns
- 18 Divisions
- 6 Historical Battles, playable in solo, coop & multiplayer
- 25 Real-time Skirmish maps
- 3 game modes, including Breakthrough, playable in solo, coop & multiplayer
- 600+ units
- A new Deck Builder
- The Armory
The game is packed with cool new gameplay features, such as the new Defensive Structures, the Commanders, and more unnannounced features (we'll talk about it just below). The content is even bigger if you own Steel Division: Normandy 44, as you will get the Back to War pack for free.
We also have serious post-launch plans for the game, including (besides constant improvement of the game, of course), 10 free DLC (including maps, divisions, aces, camos, and more) releasing during the year after Steel Division 2’s release.
And now: some gameplay!
Spoiler alert: the following content contains some gameplay elements that will be detailed in tomorrow's Dev Diary. You've been warned!
In this video, we are playing a 1v1 Closer Combat Battle against the A.I. on the Orsha North map. The 2nd GuardsTank Corps Battlegroup we are using is very similar to the one we've built on the Deck Builder video, and we're fighting against the 5. Panzerdivision. All this content will be available on the first phase of the Beta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzCkuTvJYnU
Even if the video is edited (to make it more digestible), the battle you will see was only played once, we didn't cut it to make it look like the perfectly-executed battle. Some tactical mistakes were made. Some good men died. Damn war.
You will probably notice some minor glitches (one of them being the "shield" appearing on the plane's labels), but they will be fixed before the beta starts on March 27th.
We will keep you posted on the exact Beta start date and on the complete Beta schedule soon, so stay tuned!