Blood Bowl 3's getting a closed beta next year - but guaranteed entry will cost you

We are almost in the final quarter of Blood Bowl 3’s development. The turn-based American Football and Warhammer mash-up is scheduled to come out next year, but Games Workshop have announced it will be preceded by a closed beta in early 2021. There are going to be several ways into the pre-release party, according to publisher Nacon and developer Cyanide, but neither have specified exactly what form those routes are going to take. Instead, the only way to guarantee access to the closed beta right now is to pre-order the next edition of the board game it's based on - and it's a costly way in, to be sure.

According to Games Workshop, you can pre-order the Blood Bowl: Second Season Edition to guarantee beta access to the electronic version of Blood Bowl 3, and they'll send you a code when it's live. The tabletop game is £85, though, so I wouldn’t buy it if you just want to access Blood Bowl 3, as that's a lot of money. By comparison, my cat only cost me £60.

There are other, as yet unannounced, ways you'll be able to get access to the beta, but if you're an eager tabletop fan with a wad of cash then you have a route in. Doing so would get you a head start on your clipboard full of tactics that all coaches seem to carry around, as the newly updated rules for the boxed game have been Ctrl-Ved into the PC game.

What else is in there? 12 teams, including the new Black Orcs and Imperial Nobility (which will be playable from the very beginning), a season mode and multiplayer. And, of course, some neat customisation options courtesy of its new player editor that lets you add new licks of virtual paint and swap out the spikey uniform parts, as shown below.

There is no release date for the final game or the beta, but both are expected in "early 2021".