Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare beta finally goes live after PlayStation Network troubles

Sony’s online gaming service went through some hiccups earlier today. Now it’s back up, and that means one of the biggest games of the fall is live as part of a pre-launch test.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s beta is now available on PlayStation 4 for anyone who preordered the full the game. Developer Infinity Ward will launch the sci-fi military shooter November 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. But prior to that, the studio and Activision are running this beta, which tests the viability of the game’s performance over a network (among other things), through October 17. The test phase will return once again for both PS4 and Xbox One (but not PC) on October 21 before finally closing down on October 24.

If you want to get into the beta, you’ll need to preorder the game from a participating retailer or through the PlayStation Store. Once you do that, you should get a code, and you can head to the official Call of Duty website to redeem it for access to the test.

https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/787009703553282048

While this beta test will provide Infinity Ward with data about how the game works over the internet and how players behave when using various weapons and items, this is also a marketing stunt. Giving people the chance to play the game early, as long as they preorder, is one way to boost sales. And even if Activision and Infinity Ward decide to open up the game to everyone, like they did with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare way back in 2007, that will only get consumers talking more.

Call of Duty is one of the best-selling gaming franchises of all time, and Activision is doing everything it can to maintain that momentum. This beta is a part of those efforts.