Free-To-Play Company of Heroes Online Hits Beta

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Company of Heroes Online, the free-to-play version of Relic's RTS, which was originally developed for release in Asian markets has entered into a closed beta test in the US.

Right now, the beta is limited to "a few lucky Company of Heroes community members", but 20,000 keys will become available on July 26 through FilePlanet.com.

"The Company of Heroes Online Beta will feature two different armies, the Allies and Axis each with three different divisions offering players a choice of play style. The beta will feature 17 different multiplayer maps, which will be split between 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 modes. Players of the Company of Heroes Online Beta will also be able to enjoy the single player campaign from Company of Heroes for free."

Like most free-to-play games, gamers will unlock new content through playtime, but can purchase upgrades via microtransactions. It will be interesting to see how this title does under its new business model. The original game sold and was reviewed well, but the online community peaked after the two expansions were released. This free-to-play version could expose a whole new audience to the franchise.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 22, 2010 11:40 AM

    The day before sc2? Good luck.

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      July 22, 2010 12:17 PM

      Surely I'm not the only one whom Starcraft doesn't even register on the interest scale. Talk about a convoluted game

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        July 22, 2010 12:58 PM

        you and some dudes in Mongolia are about the only people not hyped about SC2.

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        July 22, 2010 1:22 PM

        no, youre not the only one. theres at least two of us.

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          July 22, 2010 2:46 PM

          I don't care about Starcraft either, thought only East Asians got a boner over that game.

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          July 22, 2010 11:29 PM

          Three.

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        July 22, 2010 1:47 PM

        You're not - after playing in the crappy MP beta, I was sorely disappointed. Felt like I was playing the same StarCraft game from years ago. No innovation whatsoever, really.

        Total waste of an opportunity from Blizzard but I've come to expect that from their style of game development that caters to the lowest common denominator.

        I'm interested in the SP portion of SC2 only and right now it's probably the only thing keeping me interested in buying it at launch on the 27th.

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          July 22, 2010 2:21 PM

          [deleted]

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          July 22, 2010 10:13 PM

          Innovation doesn't always mean good. Most RTS's that had all this "innovation" as of late, were complete and utter freaking jokes after about 2 months when it came to online play. There is no reason to change Starcraft drastically. It's a game that has been praised for years, takes an insane amount of skill to play at the highest levels.

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      July 22, 2010 12:22 PM

      [deleted]

Hello, Meet Lola