During the TGS 2016 Gundam Games 15th Anniversary panel, Gundam Versus producer Ryuichiro Baba announced the upcoming PS4 title will be getting a closed alpha test soon. They will be releasing more information about how to participate in the near future through their official twitter page. What we do know is that it will be a local-only affair, so we’re going to have to wait a bit longer to get our online battling on. Whether or not the alpha is limited to just JP PSN accounts is another unknown as well.

Baba also mentioned that he’s looking to differentiate the console experience from what we know from previous arcade-derived titles, on top of wanting a worldwide audience to get into the 2v2 gameplay the Gundam VS series is known for. As to how the difference will be between the arcade and console experiences is still yet to be determined. Considering their last forays in bringing 2v2 gameplay to the West (Rise of Incarnates, Gundam Extreme VS Force) haven’t exactly garnered the greatest of praise from the hardcore Gundam VS fans, it will be interesting to see what they consider.

Needless to say, we won’t be seeing this game released until after the 1st half of 2017. During the panel, Amuro Ray VA Tohru Furuya tried his best to get a solid release date from Baba, but was met with a possible Autumn release for next year. This also coincides with a recent Famitsu Magazine article that mentions the game is only 30% complete and the game is using a brand new engine dubbed the “Nu Library.” This engine is being worked on by Julien Merceron, the former worldwide technology director and architect of the Fox Engine at Konami. At the very least, this game is going to look amazing.

As always, we’all keep you up to date on the closed alpha and other information on the game as it drops!