The developers of Crucible are making a big change to the game: it's heading back to a closed beta setup despite having already launched. The change comes as part of developer Relentless Studios' efforts to respond to community feedback and improve upon the game.
Crucible, the Amazon Game Studios-owned free-to-play shooter, launched in full on May 20, 2020. Relentless Studios also laid out a roadmap before this decision, outlining the direction it planned to take the game, but it seems now that those changes will be applied to the game while in closed beta.
In a post to the Crucible website, the development team admitted that the game launched before it was truly ready to do so, hence the move back to a closed beta; the change will be taking place tomorrow, July 1. The previously laid-out roadmap and steps that Relentless planned to take to improve the game will still be happening as planned, according to the post, and the only real difference is that those changes will be applied to the game in beta. That includes map, combat, and system changes to improve the Heart of the Hives experience, and game developers will also continue to engage with the community and solicit even more feedback on Crucible.
To that end, developers assured the community that the game would more or less remain the same to them while in beta. Players will still launch Crucible through Steam, keep all their current progress and customization items that have already been earned, and the game's battle pass, reward tracks, and the in-game store will still be fully supported. The main change that players will notice is a dedicated time for developers to play the game alongside players each week and gather feedback from them; the game will still be accessible all the time throughout that, so it won't affect anyone's ability to play the game.
Anyone not currently part of the Crucible community has until tomorrow at 9 a.m. PST to get the game and be part of the ongoing closed beta. However, the Crucible website will allow new players to sign up in the near future as well.
Beyond that, the development team intends to stay active in communicating upcoming changes and updates to the team-based Crucible; when it exits beta once again, it'll be because of community feedback and in-game metrics.
Source: Crucible