Officially, Microsoft will begin the Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta on Monday, April 18. However, some people might be able to play in the beta for the upcoming Xbox One shooter on Friday, April 15, three days ahead of time.
The news was posted in the game's official forums where it was revealed that developer The Coalition will host a livestream of Gears of War 4 gameplay on Friday:
We will also be giving away tons of keys during the stream and winners can start playing the beta THREE DAYS EARLY starting on April 15th at 3pm PT! You will also have additional opportunities to win keys throughout that weekend. We will have more information to share on the stream shortly so stay tuned!
If you already have a key for the beta because you bought Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, here's when you can expect to get the code:
We plan on sending out codes to users who played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition in chronological order from the date they first played. For example, if you played on the first day the game launched, you will most likely receive your code on the 18th. Players that jumped in toward the tail end of the deadline (April 11th) will probably fall toward the end of the distribution. Codes will arrive via Xbox Live Messages. Code waves will increase in size after the first day and stay consistent for each day after that. Our goal is to have all codes out to users by the end of day Thursday.There will be beta rewards in the Gears of War 4 beta for participating. You will be reading more about that before this weekend. The beta rewards will not be tied to any specific dates so that everyone can earn the rewards before launch. We will also have an FAQ up during the beta that will answer a plenitude of questions.
The open beta for the game will begin on April 25 for all Xbox One owners and is scheduled to end on May 1. Gears of War 4 will officially launch on October 11.
