After months of close beta testing, Red 5 Studios has today released Firefall into open beta, inviting all willing to come and check out their free-to-play open world shooter.

The Red 5 tribe welcomes new players who’ve been awaiting their chance to experience Firefall’s unique skill-based vertical combat and sci-fi universe, and encourages everyone to join its friendly community of testers to help provide ongoing feedback and truly make Firefall their game.

Celebrating the OBT launch, the team has also released their previously teased live action cinematic trailer, which features real actors dressed in rather impressive cosplay garb, and was reportedly filmed by the studio's in-house video team.

Watch the trailer below, and head over to firefallthegame.com for free-to-play access.

Red 5 Studios has revealed that registrations for the open beta phase of their free-to-play shooter Firefall have now opened up, with the date set for July 9. The studio has also ensured that those in closed beta testings will not be forgotten in the time between, with new content to be rolled out in May and June before open beta.

Once the doors swing open on July 9th, gamers from all corners of the globe will be able to explore the world of Firefall, fighting off the Chosen and experiencing skill-based vertical combat found nowhere else!
So what does this mean for current Closed Beta players? Well, in May and again in July we’ll be rolling out new content updates for the game. While these updates will contain bug fixes and refinements of the systems already in the game, they’re also going to be introducing new elements.

So if you are interested in joining in on the warfare, now is probably the best time to secure your spot by heading over to this page.

Red 5 Studios has announced two new dates for those looking to participate in the beta weekend events for upcoming free-to-play MMO shooter Firefall. Taking place on November 30th to December 2nd and December 7th to 9th, players will be able to help stress test the game and give their feedback all for free.

“We’ve seen an overwhelming demand for access to Firefall’s beta since we began testing last year,” said Mark Kern, CEO of Red 5. “The fact is, the growing number of registered players continues to outpace our servers and with closed beta testing going into 2013 that won’t change in the short-term. These Beta Weekends are the solution. We’re inviting thousands of new players to temporarily join Firefall for some huge server stress-tests, giving us valuable feedback, giving them a taste of the game, and helping to prepare Firefall for much larger numbers.”

Along with the announcement of beta weekends, Red 5 has also revealed a new "Founders Rewards" program, offering those who help fund the game in its development stages certain tiered rewards for reached funding goals.

You can check out more on the upcoming beta weekends over here, and you can also find more information about the Founders Program available here.

Shacknews is reporting that Red 5 Studios, the developers for the upcoming Free-To-Play hybrid FPS/MMO is protesting against the devastating Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), by shutting off their beta program and website for 24 hours starting January 17th.

While the media over in America is in a blackout, with very little coming through about the process of the bill, game companies around the world are lashing out, exclaiming that this will do more bad then good. Among them is Red 5 Studios.

Calling SOPA "misguided legislation," Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern said the proposed bill would hurt smaller game companies, "who will not have the legal resources or lobbying presence to protect themselves from unwarranted shutdown."

What is making Red 5 Studios lash out like this? The ESA, short for Entertainment Software Association, have put their support towards the SOPA bill, bringing along them a list of all the game developers who are are standing behind it as well. While some have said no to supporting, like EA, Sony and Nintendo, others have yet to say publicly on what their position is.

When asked if Red 5 Studios would appear at future E3 events considering the company's position against the ESA, CEO Mark Kern said: "No, we will not attend E3 unless ESA reverses their stance."

Other companies besides game companies have spoken out including big names like 4chan, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Mozilla Corporation and Reddit.

Drop us a line in the comments on what you think of SOPA and what it could do.

Indie dev Red 5 Studios have released a couple of new videos for Firefall, offering a slightly different behind the scenes look than the usual game development insights for their upcoming open world RPG/shooter. These latest videos are actually more of a behind the scenes look at marketing, as they introduce the two model/actors that have been selected to cosplay as characters from the game at upcoming promotional events.

Even if you're not generally a fan of the whole cosplay thing, this might be worth checking out just to see how professionally they've been able to recreate these game characters (which you can see in the original Cinematic Trailer for reference).

Watch the embedded vids below or click here and here for the HD video pages.

Firefall is in the works for PC, with a current release target of mid 2012.

Remember Firefall? That free-to-play FPS/MMO by Red5? Well, a new trailer is up showcasing PvP and showing off some abilities for a few classes. Watch it here in HD or embedded below. This is one game I am looking forward to. And the icing on the cake is it is free!



Promoted/Edited forum item

R5 Studios have put together a new trailer for Firefall for a recent Chinese trade-show, showing off more gameplay from the recently revealed open-world shooter RPG. Today's video does double up on a bit of footage that we saw in the original extended gameplay trailer from PAX, but there's enough new stuff in there to get us nice and excited again.

For the newcomers, Firefall is the debut title from r5 Studios, a development house helmed by some veterans designers of World of Warcraft and Tribes.

Firefall is still looking toward a late 2011 launch with a free-to-play model on PC.

Among the chaos that was last weekend's PAX Prime expo, fledgling developer Red 5 Studios announced their debut title, a very adventurous shooter/RPG hybrid called Firefall.

Perhaps the most interesting point of this announcement is that Red 5 Studios team is helmed by some pretty proven developers, CEO and Chief Creative Officer Mark Kern who was the project lead on a little game some of you might have heard of called World of Warcraft as well as Scott Youngblood the lead designer of Tribes.

Firefall paints a beautifully devastating vision of Earth, 200 years in the future. The promise of a new clean energy source, Crystite, leads to the disastrous arrival of the Melding, a hostile energy storm that engulfs most of our home planet. Earth’s surviving humans must band together in the eye of the Melding storm to save our species. Unfortunately, a new danger emerges as a bloodthirsty race known as The Chosen threatens humanity’s survival.

Players will protect the Earth through the use of high-tech battleframes, which can be customized extensively to unlock the power of Firefall’s class-based combat. Battleframes allow players to specialize in their favorite style of play, while giving them the flexibility to swap and trade their way to new configurations on-the-fly. Whether you enjoy supporting your team, aggressively assaulting an enemy position, or sneaking behind enemy lines, there is a battleframe for you.

Firefall will feature a free-to-play model that allows players to experience every detail of the vibrant world without having to pay a penny. Updates to the game, dynamic world events, and other content will also be offered without a price tag, while a marketplace will allow fans to purchase optional enhancements.

A debut cinematic trailer has been released, as well as a video of the gameplay demo that was shown off at PAX, offering 10 minutes of in-game action.

Screenshots and more details can be found on our new Firefall game page.