The Blacklight: Retribution closed beta begins on 10th November, Perfect World Entertainment has announced.

Select players, the company said, will be invited into the beta on day one. Additional waves of players will be invited in the following weeks.

"The development of Blacklight: Retribution has been a hard earned labour of love and after receiving praise from both fans and media, we're confident that our work will pay off," said Jared Gerritzen, creative director at developer Zombie Studios.

"Closed beta is another step towards a game that we know people will have a great time playing."

Gerritzen is the developer who in June criticised Activision for the Call of Duty: Elite payment system, suggesting it was the work of a "jerk".

"Right now, if they could, they'd charge 60 bucks [for the game], then 20 bucks a month for a map pack - or even just one map - and then $9 to upload game movies to YouTube," he said at the time. "They see this massive fan base, and why aren't they spending that money and evolving the game even more?

"Looking across the last four games, was there anything really new? That's the sad part. Think about if they tried to spend that money that they're trying to milk from the fans.

"It's sad. It's really weird But there's always going to be that guy; there's always going to be the jerk."

Blacklight: Retribution is an online shooter that will be free-to-play. Zombie plans to make money on the game via microtransactions instead of subscription fees.