Developer Saber Interactive and publisher Focus Entertainment have confirmed that Space Marine 2's public stress test, scheduled to take place before the games' 9th September release, will no longer be going ahead. Claiming to be entirely focused on optimisation, polish, and bug fixes, the powers that be say: "Space Marine 2 is almost ready... This means we will not run a public online beta, as it would take the development teams away from preparing for the full launch, and our priority is to ensure the best possible experience at release."
Acknowledging that this news may be disappointing, the unique Porphyr Shield Bolt Pistol skin will be made available to those who registered via online signup before 28th June, which is something at least. Space Marine 2 will ship with both PVP and PVE multiplayer modes, so testing those modes before launch, at scale, seems like good tactical sense to us. Still, we suppose the developers know best, and we hope the game's multiplayer servers can handle what we suspect will be many, many more Space Marines than are customarily allowed by Primarch Roboute Guilliman's sacred tome of strategy and military organisation, the Codex Astartes.