Amazon's Crucible Steps Back Into Closed Beta: What Players Can Expect

Amazon has made the surprising decision to walk its new Crucible PC game back into closed beta, restricting it to the gamers who already have access to the title. It's no secret that Crucible had a rocky start, prompting the company to lay out a new roadmap earlier this month. That roadmap won't be changing, however, the game will be in closed beta until further notice.

In early June, Amazon made the decision to extend Crucible's pre-season period indefinitely, giving the Relentless Studios team a chance to refine the rough gameplay. The plan is to improve many aspects of the game that players have complained about, and to also add requested — arguably critical — features like voice chat functionality.

The team detailed its roadmap on June 4 to inform players about what to expect (check out the video below for all of the details). The team had acknowledged that it needed to polish the game and add some features. Among other things, the company said that it would focus all of its efforts on the game's "Heart of the Hives" mode, meaning that it removed the two other game modes: "Alpha Hunters" and "Harvester Command."

In a new update on June 30, the Crucible team says that nothing about the roadmap detailed on June 4 will change — except that the game will be going into closed beta, that is. What does this mean for players? "For the most part, your experience as a Crucible player will stay pretty much the same while we're in beta," the developers explain.

Closed beta players will still launch the game through Steam and will keep all of their in-game items and progress. The battle pass will remain, as well as the reward tracks and in-game store. Crucible will also remain available non-stop. The only big change players will note is that every week, the game developers will join the community to play the game with them and to get feedback.