Battlefield 5 open beta release date is right around the corner

The press conference NVIDIA held at Gamescom today was pretty much all about the company's new 20 series graphics cards, but in between talks of neural networking and ray tracing, there was a surprise announcement. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang took a quick moment to tell us when Battlefield 5's open beta will launch. It was one of those blink-and-you-miss-it moments, but it still gave us the details we want to know.

Huang announced that Battlefield 5's open beta will enter early access on September 4. Two days later, on September 6, it'll open to everyone. For more information on the beta, we turn to Electronic Arts and DICE, which have gone into more depth on the official Battlefield site.

Pre-loading for the open beta begins on September 3 at 8:00 UTC. You can begin playing on September 4 if you've pre-ordered a copy of the game or if you're a subscriber to EA Access, Origin Access, or EA's freshly-launched Origin Access Premier.

During the beta, players will be able to participate in Conquest mode on the Rotterdam map, which was actually the subject of a Gamescom trailer that debuted last week. You'll also be able to play through the Breakthrough and Airborne Grand Operations on the Arctic Fjord map. Most of that content was available during June's closed alpha, but during the open beta, you'll also be able to play a chapter of the game's Tides of War campaign as well. Everyone who completes that chapter will get a special dog tag to wear in the full release of Battlefield 5.

At this point, we're unsure when the open beta will end. Regardless of when it does, we're not expecting it to last very long, so you Battlefield fanatics will want to set aside some time to check out the game while the beta is live. Unlike the closed alpha, which was exclusive to PC, this open beta will be available on all of Battlefield 5's launch platforms.