Team Jade has announced the open beta date for Delta Force.
As explained on the official Delta Force website, open beta is launching on December 5, 2024, on Steam, Epic Game Store, and on the game’s official launcher.
Team Jade chose to change the game status from Early Access to open beta, possibly because of the rules Steam ties to Early Access games on their platform.
Because of this, gamers who start playing Delta Force during its open beta period will not lose their saves when Team Jade switches the game over from open beta to a full PC release. There will be in-game transactions during this open beta, and these purchased items will carry over in the full PC release as well.
They also promise new weapons, vehicles, appearances, UI, mechanics, servers, languages and more in the coming 44 days, so there is a lot for players to look forward to by the time December comes around.
Given how quickly Team Jade has deployed updates and new content, this does not seem like signs that the studio is facing difficulties in game development. Rather, they decided that this new arrangement will be better for the early players who got into the game early.
And yes, there are other things Team Jade announced that are not quite ready yet. For starters, controller support still won’t be ready for the December open beta. Subsequently, mobile and console versions are still planned to release in Q1 2025.
If you take all the information that we have into account, it sounds like Team Jade could have made it easier for themselves. They could have pushed the game’s open beta/full release to Q1 2025, when controller support would be ready. They could have also launched the PC, console, and mobile versions at the same time.
But maybe this is a situation where they need to take each thing one step at a time. They may be looking for feedback and real time analysis of the game during open beta, to move forward with all these other features and plans.
Buzz around the game remains positive, but Team Jade faces a potentially challenging launch. Rumors are already going around that Ubisoft’s XDefiant, which launched earlier this year, is in danger of cancellation because it isn’t generating enough income.
The prevailing theory is that only a select few games are taking up the majority of gamers’ attention, such as Fortnite and Call of Duty. Delta Force has been compared favorably to Battlefield. But, will Team Jade’s efforts pass the real test? Will it be enjoyable and addictive enough to become a sustainable live service title? And will it meet TenCent’s expectations? These are the challenges Team Jade cautiously approaches with this looming open beta.