Gears of War meets League of Legends in Epic Games’ attempt to crack the esports market, and now everyone can try it.
The developer announced today that its multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) Paragon is now available for all interested players in and open beta test for PlayStation 4 and PC. MOBAs are an especially popular kind of game in the growing competitive gaming field. Research firm SuperData expects the esports market to reach $1.23 billion by 2019.
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Open betas allow a large group of players to test a game before launch, which can help discover and solve problems before a final release. They also serve as a marketing tool, since they give people a chance to try a game and potentially spread positive buzz.
Right now, MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota 2 are at the top of the field, but Epic Games could compete with Paragon. While League of Legends and Dota 2 have a top-down perspective and are just on PCs, Paragon is a third-person game available on PlayStation 4 and PC. It has more in common with Smite, another third-person MOBA that’s available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Unlike Smite, Paragons support cross-platform play, meaning that users on PlayStation 4 and PC can compete with and against each other. It also stands out with its greater emphasis on graphics. Epic Games is also the company behind the popular Unreal Engine, and Paragon runs on the latest version of the tech, Unreal Engine 4.