Strategy Informer  

Bohemia Interactive has announced that it will be debuting ArmA 3 for the first time at E3 2012, followed by an appearance at Gamescom. This will be followed by what the developer calls a "Community Alpha" as the public will be allowed to test an early playable build of the game.

Bohemia's Dan Musil described the "Community Alpha" as a way for fans to have a say in the game's development, stating, "Following E3, we plan to open up the game to our players. This process starts with the release of a playable build of Arma 3. We call it the 'Community Alpha'. It's intended to enable people who'd like to try the game early on in development help us to shape it up - and make Arma 3 the greatest release of the series. Ours is a large and complex game - being developed by a relatively small team - so we really appreciate your opinions, thoughts and feedback."

The "Alpha", which will be "quite limited", will also allow modders to get a sense of what to expect with the latest version of the game's Real Virtuality engine. The game's development will also have a strong focus on backward compatibility so that older assets will be usable in ArmA 3.

Musil then went on to promise, "Then, later on in the year, we'd like to open up our game up even further with a more extensive beta program. The exact details, however, we intend to set out closer to their launch."

E3 2012 will be taking place from the 5th to 7th June, while Gamescom Cologne will be held from the 16th to 19th August.

Related games: ArmA III (PC)