In November of last year, Ashes of Creation company Intrepid Studios startled both Kickstarter supporters and general MMO watchers by announcing that its battle royale mode, originally conceived and pitched as a quick-start PvP alpha, would instead launch as a standalone free-to-play BR mode called Apocalypse. While the studio always emphasized that the goal for the battle royale was to test the MMORPG’s hybrid action combat system, this past March the devs admitted that players were still confused about the team’s direction, and moreover, that Apocalypse had revealed needed “architectural refactoring” and issues that required “rebuilding from the ground up” in order to realize the “largest organized PVP battles of any MMORPG.” That’s meant the studio’s been quiet throughout spring and summer, with dev blogs focused on lore and MMORPG game systems instead of PvP.
That period is clearly coming to an end now, though, as last night Ashes of Creation’s devs announced that they’re launching Apocalypse testing next week once again – and this time it’ll be on Steam.
“On Tuesday, August 20, 2019 from 11AM PDT to 11PM PDT, all registered users will be able to log in and play the Battle Royale mode of Ashes of Creation Apocalypse. Solo and Squad game modes will be available for play on our North American (East), European (Central), and Asian (Singapore) servers. This play test is open to all registered users, and you can register an account on our website here if you don’t already have one. The latest patch will be available from our website starting on Monday, August 19 at 2PM PDT, so you can get ready for the play test that kicks off at 11AM PDT on Tuesday, August 20! We are also excited to announce that during this play test, Ashes of Creation Apocalypse will become available for download on Steam! The Ashes of Creation Apocalypse Steam page will launch on Monday, August 19, 2019 at 2PM PDT so you can prepare in advance for Tuesday. As we move forward with play testing, we want to invite as many people as possible to push our back-end infrastructure to its limits, and Steam helps provide us with a platform where we can reach a broader community.”
Do note that the old launcher won’t work, there won’t be any region-locking for the test, it’ll be totally free-to-play with a cosmetic cash shop, and players will see a temporary progression buff. Intrepid says it’s looking for specific feedback on “combat & weapon balance, user interface & player experience, and game performance.”
Also worth noting? While Apocalypse will be tested on Steam, the devs say Ashes of Creation itself might not be: “Currently we do not have plans to support Steam as a platform for the Ashes of Creation MMORPG.”
Get caught up on all the battle royal action in Ashes so far:
