Starting today, you can get a preview of Toys for Bob’s upcoming title, Crash Team Rumble. From April 20th to April 24th, Activision is granting beta access for players who preorder the game at $39.99. Crash Team Rumble drops on June 20th, and both the full game and the beta will be available on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. The game is the 23rd title in the Crash Bandicoot franchise and the third-party game. This new edition to Crash “is a 4v4 team-based competition where the iconic heroes and villains of the Crash universe battle to capture more wumpa fruit than the other to claim victory. Each hero has unique skills and abilities to strategically use to work together to battle the opposing team, defend their own wumpa bank, and capture key points around the map to help their team.”
While the only requirement to access the beta is to pre-order the game, players should know that the offer comes with your standard promotional qualifications: “Actual platform availability and beta date(s) subject to change. Beta downloaded separately. Play time subject to possible outages and time zone differences. Minimum Beta duration is two days. Limited time only. Internet connection required. PlayStation®Plus / Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Xbox Live Gold may be required (subscriptions sold separately).”
One reason Activision is letting players into a closed beta is to get feedback on the game. According to a blog post by Daniel Noel on Activision’s substack, Crash Team Rumble’s creative director Daniel Neil is “excited to unleash the game on the public.” “There will be lots more people playing Crash Team Rumble than there ever have been,” the post read, “and it’s going to give us a bunch of really important information about the game balance to allow us to fine-tune it as we move forward to launch.”
“The trick to Crash Team Rumble? Continual playtesting,” wrote Activision. Neil explained: “We repeat the cycle over and over and that’s what brings us to the game we have today,” he says. “In some ways that’s not different to how we did it before: Build, play, feedback, change, build, play, feedback, change…go round and round. Going live with a closed beta carries on this process, just on a bigger and more public stage.”