Second Undisputed Multiplayer Beta Announced

Earlier this month, the good folks over at Steel City Interactive gave us the first taste of Undisputed with the first beta. I had mostly positive impressions and an increased sense of anticipation despite there being no concrete release date. As with most online betas, the goal was to introduce players to the control scheme, test the online matchmaking, and of course, collect feedback. During the course of this first beta several small tuners to help with matchmaking were added, which really helped connect us to other players. Once the initial beta closed, the team over at Steel City Interactive dropped a post-beta roundtable where the Creative Director (Ash Habib), Content Manager (Edward), and Director of Global Communications (Will Kinsler) talked about the challenges they faced and what their communication strategy would be as they near release. If you haven’t had a chance to see it you can view it here. With all that said, their content manager took to YouTube to reveal that a second Undisputed beta would be coming:

Second Undisputed Beta

Release Date For Beta

The first thing we learned are the dates for this second beta:

December 9-11 for a select time period (three hours) depending on your time zone:

• 8 p.m. GMT (UK) to 11 p.m. GMT (UK)
• 3 p.m. ET (East Coast USA) to 6 pm ET (East Coast USA )
• 5 a.m. (Eastern Australia) to 8 a.m. AEDT (Eastern Australia)

Why Steel City Is Releasing A Second Beta

In their own words:

Following the matchmaking issues that some players experienced during the first beta, we’ve made a number of improvements. It’s important to us that the game is in a good place on day one of early access and hosting a second beta helps us test the multiplayer changes we’ve made at scale.

What You Need To Know

The primary purpose of the beta is to test the multiplayer infrastructure on a large scale. Since Undisputed is not a finished game, it’s perfectly normal to expect bugs, crashes, lag, or any number of things that might impact the experience as it’s important to identify these issues before the final game releases.

Roster

Unlike the first beta, which featured four fighters (two men & two women) situated in one venue, the second beta will have a total of two venues and eight available fighters:

1. Katie Taylor
2. Chantelle Cameron
3. Jessica McCaskill
4. Oleksandr Usyk
5. Deontay Wilder
6. Rocky Marciano
7. Nigel Benn
8. Roy Jones Jr.

Here we go! Despite enjoying the Mickey Ward-Arturo Gatti matchup (I mean who wouldn’t after that legendary trilogy), the style those two fighters display are suited for a brawl. Even with the loose footwork functionality, the true freedom of movement capable within Undisputed wasn’t on full display (neither was hand speed). But looking at the roster we’re getting access to in this second beta, we’re getting not one, but two punchers with incredible hand speed in Roy Jones Jr. and Nigel Benn — assuming it’s not heavyweight Roy, which makes sense considering Oleksandr Usyk is available as heavyweight competition for Wilder. That leaves Rocky Marciano, who technically was a heavyweight at 185, available to battle with Roy on even ground.

Who Can Sign Up?

According to the video, anyone with a Steam account and a computer who meets the minimum hardware requirements (posted below) can sign up for free. Anyone who can sign up and play will be able to record and share footage, livestream the beta, and discuss anything they experience. This is always nice considering how EA treats betas for FIFA, which have strict copyright agreements in place including the most annoying of username watermarks.

How To Sign Up

If you signed up for the first beta, you’ll already have access to the second through your Steam library. For people who didn’t sign up last time, they’re registering new sign-ups through Steam itself. Provided the beta goes well, they will slowly expand to include those new sign-ups. Head over to their Steam page and hit the “Request Access” button. Steam will then send you an email if you are given access to the beta, at which point you’ll be able to download the beta build of the game and play.

PC Specs

Minimum PC Specs Required: i5-8400, 8 GB RAM, GTX 1060

Bottom Line

Seeing a game built from the ground-up and tested through the community is a beautiful thing. The same community who rightfully wondered if this game would ever be released is now chomping at the bit to play this game some more, including me. With an ever-expanding roster, it’s up to the folks at Steel City Interactive to refine the boxing mechanics and create modes worthy of gameplay. Of course, the PC modding community will also have their say, but just as Steel City keeps us updated we’ll in turn keep you updated. For now, get those capture devices ready because come December 9 we’ll be expecting to see those hands fly!