Ubisoft has announced a closed beta for Roller Champions on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC beginning on February 17. The catch is it will only be available to players within certain European countries. At least it’s no longer PC exclusive as was first planned when the closed alpha was announced last year.
The game sounds simple. Two teams of three players compete to gain possession of the ball, complete at least one lap of the arena, and then score by throwing the ball through the hoop. The more laps completed before the ball is shot through the hoop, the more points your team gets. Players can use pump moves to gain speed by moving up and down the walls of the arena, tag onto their team mates for a jump boost or speed boost, and pull off fancy moves to wow the crowd. Since the closed alpha on PC, new moves have been added for players to try. Each pass, goal and tackle will earn fans, the game’s equivalent of XP to increase your popularity, unlock sponsors, gain contracts, and further your career.
Champions can be fully customised in the game’s improved editor. New outfits are available to unlock as players progress, and these can be customised too. Once that’s done, there’ll be a few game modes to try out. Quick match throws players into an arena with similarly skilled opponents. Custom Match does exactly what it says on the tin, while the Skatepark mode is a freestyle practice arena with activities and mini-games. All of these will be available from the start.
On the second day of the beta, the team will introduce Ranked Mode, where players will need to head if they want to climb the leaderboards. Players need to take part in ten matches to obtain a rank. From there, they’ll need to progress from the lowly Garage League all the way to the Champion League. As the beta progresses, limited time game modes like 2v2 Match will also be introduced.
The aim of the beta is to gather player feedback and improve the multiplayer gameplay so it’s “smooth, reliable, and fast-paced”. This is especially important as the team will be introducing crossplay between all three of the closed beta platforms. Player progression won’t be carried over from the beta, but there are exclusive rewards to earn that will be available in the full game. These include the title “The Assistant”, and the Fresco outfit skin for completing a specific in-game quest. Regardless of whether you get into the beta or not, all players who register for the beta will get the Live Tester Outfit.
Beginning at 6pm CET on February 17, the beta will run for two weeks until 10pm CET on March 1. Players in the following European countries will be able to sign up: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Players can sign up at the game website for a chance to get one of the limited number of beta places available.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
