People who pre-order Metal Gear Solid 4 will be given guaranteed access to a beta test of Metal Gear Online, the forth coming multiplayer spin off in the MGS series, Sony has revealed. The beta is currently scheduled to open in late April.

It’s already a slightly confusing situation – Metal Gear Online is in fact a standalone game in its own right, but MGS4 will still come with an MGO ‘Starter Pack’ that will offer a scaled down version of the full MGO experience.

Sounds like there’s a potential mine field to navigate with this model; too generous an offering won’t really inspire people to upgrade to a full version, but making the Starter Pack too restricted could really put off players and not give them a good taster of what’s really on offer. It’s a problem faced by pretty much every demo, but is especially tricky when it comes to online games. Which is probably why Warhawk never had a demo.

Still, having access to the beta should give serious MGS fans an idea of what the online version would be like. There’s no word on whether this offer will be open to those outside the US. Given what we’ve since learned about the possibility of a European MGS4 / PS3 bundle pack, I’m guessing not. Boo.

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