OXM
Epic Games has confirmed that news on the Gears of War 3 beta will be arriving this week, following earlier hints from Major Nelson.
It was previously noted by VG247 that Microsoft's Larry Hyrb promised podcast listeners some news that would make them "really happy" would be revealed at a press event in San Francisco this week.
Much later, Gears producer Rod Fergusson reminded his Twitter followers that buying the Bulletstorm Ultimate edition gets you into the Gears 3 beta (although it's not the only way in) and that 'more beta information is coming this week'. To us, that suggests that Microsoft is going to be revealing details on the beta - if not the release date - at the event.
Fingers crossed. The big question will be how big the beta is, and how long it lasts - Bungie's Halo Reach test was over disappointingly quickly, which doesn't bode well. Then again, Epic is well aware that it needs to make good after the well-documented problems with Gears 2 online: CliffyB told us that if Gears 3 has the same multiplayer issues at launch the franchise is dead, so a long beta seems sensible.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/25867/news/epic-gears-3-beta-news-coming-this-week/
