Starhawk to be supported with free content, open beta starting soon

Sony Santa Monica and LightBox Interactive's post launch plans for Starhawk will reportedly include free DLC—the value of which developers say might come a pleasant surprise to players.

Speaking to RespawnAction about the progress of the PS3 exclusive third-person shooter, senior producer Harvard Bonin suggested support for Starhawk will resemble the extensive freebie love afforded to Warhawk when it was at its prime, saying, “I can't go into specifics, but we do have a bunch of free DLC planned...and it might be surprising. We, of course, have stuff we are happy to take your money for, too! We rethought our DLC strategy and we'll reveal more about it as we get closer to release.”

Bonin also reflected on the results of Starhawk's closed beta, noting the session greatly helped his team identify some key issues and bugs they hope to address for the public beta.

“From our team standpoint, it had a ton of highs mixed with a few lows,” he reported. “Overall, we had some freezes, crashes, balance issues, etc. There was nothing that wasn't surprising and we've been able to address a lot of this stuff. Our public beta starts soon and the next 1.2 update will fix even more.”

The open beta will welcome PlayStation Plus members from Korea, Japan, Europe, Latin America, and North America. The game itself will launch later this year.

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.