Battalion 1944 coming to Steam Early Access on February 1

Derby-based studio Bulkhead Interactive has announced a release date for WW2 multiplayer shooter Battalion 1944’s Early Access release.

The game, published by the Square Enix Collective, will come to Steam in Early Access form on Thursday 1 February. The game is aiming to trade off of nostalgia for close-quarters shooters that were popular in the late 90’s and early 00’s, taking particular cues from classic shooter Call of Duty 2.

The game was already a success on Kickstarter with 10,096 backers pledging £317,281, far in excess of the game’s £100,000 target,back in 2016.

“It feels good to get Battalion 1944 into the hands of gamers after working on it so hard,” says Joe Brammer – Studio Lead at Bulkhead Interactive. “We’ve been testing the game behind closed doors with our Kickstarter backers. It’s now time for us to extend our testing to Early Access to help what I believe can one of the best competitive FPS games ever.”

The launch will be preceded by a short beta for Kickstarter and Humble Bundle backers, running from Friday January 19 to Sunday January 21. This beta will run domination on a Manorhouse v1 map, and show off the new competitive mode ‘Wartide’ on new map Liberation.

“It’s one last chance for us to test out our wares with FPS players before we make the leap to Early Access.” says Brammer.

“Getting to grips with the intense nature of the Second World War is something that’s been key to our process,” offers Howard Philpott – Creative Producer at Bulkhead Interactive. “That’s something I also think comes across in this new reveal trailer – the action in a Battalion 1944 encounter is as feverish as it is credible. We’ve looked to bed the play down in maps that are both competitive and authentic, for which our trips to Normandy proved immensely useful”.

Here’s a trailer, if you’re into that.