Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta to run for two weeks in April on Xbox One

Microsoft has confirmed that the Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta will kick off in April and – including both the early access and open periods – will run for a total of two weeks. The beta kicks off on Monday 18 April for anyone who has played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Xbox One or PC.

That early access period will run until Monday, 25 April, at which point it will open up to all Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox One. The beta testing period conclude on Sunday, 1 May. The news was confirmed in a post on the Xbox website.

To ensure you get early access to the beta, you'll need to have played Ultimate Edition – a remake of Epic Games' 2006 original – before 12 April at 6am BST (the clocks would have gone forward by this point) (2am EDT) or 11pm PDT on 11 April. Invites will be sent out in waves from 18 April.

No PC version of Gears of War 4 has yet been confirmed, and the beta being open to Ultimate Edition players on PC isn't a sign of that. They will be offered access to the beta through the Xbox One.

Further details on what will be included in the multiplayer beta will be revealed in due course.

Last week (9 March) a ton of new Gears of War 4 information was revealed in the latest issue of Game Informer, including the names of its protagonists (JD Fenix is the son of original trilogy hero Marcus) and the fact the game will include two-player local co-op play.

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