Frictional Games’ SOMA has taken a pretty major set towards release, as the studio announces that the game is now in beta testing. Doesn’t sound like it’s going to be any kind of open beta, so don’t get too excited for that; but it does indicate that SOMA will be out later in 2015.
According to the write-up linked above, this beta build “contains all of our desired features” and has been sent to 40 mysterious players (or, you know, people Frictional Games trusts) for them to extensively test. Those critiques will partially determine the future of the game’s development: “If it turns out that something doesn’t work at all, we need to figure out a not-too-drastic tweak that can make it work, or consider cutting it entirely.”
Assuming that the responses are largely positive, Frictional says the remaining development time will most likely be spent “Adding effects, improving the art, ensuring stability, making it more intuitive and so on.” Plus ironing out any lingering SOMA bugs.
After beta, the next milestone will be SOMA’s release. The studio hasn’t put a date on that yet, as it partly depends on how well the beta goes, but they do say “The time when SOMA is finally out is really close now.”
In addition to the beta news, Frictional released a lone new screenshot for the underwater horror title, which you can see above.
