Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 release date and beta tests announced

The Warhammer 40,000 outer space RTS Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 will be out on January 24, publisher Focus Home Interactive announced today, and will be preceded by two "pre-order betas," the first of which will begin in early December.

The December beta will run for a week, with all 12 factions, full multiplayer progression, and 1v1, 2v2, and versus-AI battles. Once that wraps up, developer Tindalos will tweak, tune, and balance things in preparation for the second beta, which will kick off in January and run until the launch date. Beta 2 will include all the updates made after the first beta, plus the campaign prologue and the first sectors of two campaigns. 

The first Battlefleet Gothic: Armada was actually quite good—difficult, and unbalanced in spots, but "the campaign’s story, script, voice acting and appearance is all spot-on," we said in our 80/100 review, and "the RPG elements are horribly compelling." Hopefully the sequel can build on that success.

The Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 beta tests will be open to everyone who pre-purchases the game, which you can do on Steam for 10 percent off the regular price, or 25 percent if you own the first game.