Dying Light: Bad Blood Early Access Coming Soon

Just when you thought the Battle Royale craze was starting to stabilize, a new IP has dipped one of their 100 toes into the ring. Dying Light: Bad Blood is coming soon to early access, preceded by some special playtests.

Bad Blood is a spin-off title of Techland's established open world zombie game, Dying Light. According to a recent announcement, this variant will be launching on Steam Early Access this September. But before that, there will be two pre-early access (since that's a thing, apparently) playtests. One will be a private, invitation-only event, with the other being a global playtest.

The Battle Royale spin-off was first revealed in March. The 12 player brawl is a mix of player vs player and player vs environment combat. The main goal of the game is to reach the evac chopper safely, being the only person to escape alive. Executive producer Maciej Laczny had this to say:

“We’ve always been keen to add more PvP multiplayer to Dying Light. But we want to do it in the Dying Light way, where this world swarming with infected is just as much a threat as the other players.”

Interested players had the opportunity to sign up for the playtests, though the registration for it has already closed. Those registered will be able to participate in at least one of the two upcoming playtests. Regardless of which, those registered can expect an email on August 22 with more information.

The first playtest will be purely invite-only. Those who received an invitation will be able to play the pre-early access version from 9 AM on August 25 to 9 PM August 26.

Following that test is the global playtest, which will be available to all that registered. Much like the first, this test will only span a day. Any progress made during these events will be transferred into the Early Access version of the game.

While in Early Access, Dying Light: Bad Blood will cost $19.99 in the form of a Founders Pack. When the game formally launches on PC and consoles, it will transition to free-to-play. No word on when the formal release for the full game would be.