Wasteland 3 alpha test takes place later this month for certain backers

Wasteland 3 (Image credit: Microsoft)

What you need to know

Wasteland 3 is a post-apocalyptic strategy game from Microsoft's inXile Entertainment.
High-tier backers will be able to play an alpha on August 21.
The test will be accessible through Steam.
The game will probably launch in 2020, but there is no concrete release date yet.

Wasteland 3 is an upcoming post-apocalyptic strategy game from Microsoft's inXile Entertainment. During the Xbox E3 2019 briefing, the team gave us a new look at the long-awaited game. We'll be going to the snow-covered wasteland of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains very soon.

If you backed the game, you'll be happy to know that you can play the Wasteland 3 Alpha on August 21. You can download it through Steam. The developer said the following on the crowdfunding website Fig.

The Wasteland 3 Alpha is closer than ever, and those of you who have pledged at the First Access... or higher tier... will soon be getting hands-on with the game. Come August 21, you'll be setting foot in... frozen post-apocalyptic Colorado for the first time. This is an early preview, so we want to get in a few disclaimers. This demo is firmly an Alpha, so every single piece of the game you'll see and play will very much be a work in progress. While we're going to do our best to provide a stable build, you should expect some amount of crashes, performance drops, compatibility issues... That's part of what we're testing and getting your feedback on... The alpha is combat-focused and revolves around the last leg of your journey to deal with one of the Patriarch's children, lovingly known as the Psychopath... For many of you who didn't back at the Alpha tiers, you'll be looking forward to Early Access, which is the second demo we'll have before launch. Alpha and Early Access will both use the same Steam entry.

It's great to see that work is coming along nicely. However, it's still unclear when the game will launch. It seems like it's a 2020 release, but given the scope of the project — and the fact that inXile is now a part of Microsoft — it may take more time.

The game is scheduled to launch on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4. Since the title was in development for Sony's platform before the acquisition, that will still be honored. Let's hope Wasteland 3 is an improvement over Wasteland 2 because the latter didn't run that well on Xbox One.

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