Multiplayer FPS PlanetSide Arena, which was due to launch next week, has been delayed until March 26, developer Daybreak Games has announced.
The shooter is set to launch with a 150-player battle royale mode and a 250v250 team fight, and while Daybreak has made "significant strides" towards getting it where it needs to be, there are still "crucial feature enhancements and core systems improvements we can make that will lift PlanetSide Arena to the level it deserves", it said in a blog post.
Instead of a full release on January 29 as planned, Daybreak will launch a closed beta on January 30 to allow for more player testing and feedback. Everyone that pre-orders the game will be able to play the beta, or you can sign up here for a chance to get a key without pre-ordering.
Everyone that pre-orders will also get access to the Founders Season, which starts on February 20. It's not clear whether the game will still be in closed beta at that point, but the period between then and the full release will feature an "exclusive Battle Pass with items you can only earn during this season"—it's Daybreak's way of "thanking all of you for hanging in there while we prime the Arena for launch".
On the delay to the release date, Daybreak said: "While we agonized about this decision down to the deadline, we ultimately decided taking extra time to supplement our feature set, fully optimize engine performance, and improve server infrastructure was absolutely necessary to deliver the quality, polished game the PlanetSide community deserves."
You can find out more about the shooter via the developer's Inside The Arena video series.
