Amazon released its free-to-play team shooter Crucible on May 20, 2020, but on July 1, the game will be moved back to a Closed Beta state to rework gameplay. In a blog posted by Crucible team head Colin Johanson, the plan for the game's return to beta was laid out.

Johansen assured that the game would be virtually unchanged for players, and that anyone without the game who wants to participate in the Closed Beta must pick up Crucible by July 1st. Players will still be allowed to interact with others, stream, and create clips as they were able to upon the game’s release.

The primary change is that the Crucible developers will be dedicating time each week to play with members of the community for feedback. Johanson claims that the schedule for these community sessions will be made public soon.

Crucible has been subject to criticism since its release, but the development team has done a good job in engaging with the community’s feedback in the form of a Discord server and a roadmap that laid out the planned improvements to the game with transparency. The return to Closed Beta for Crucible is less of a left turn and more of an augmentation to the original route mapped out. The developers believe that the steps introduced for the beta will be optimal for improvement. 

According to Johanson, the time in which the Closed Beta period will end will be based on the feedback of the player base and in-game metrics. Crucible will still be launched through Steam, but only if the game is purchased on the account by 9:00am PT on July 1. In the near future, newly interested gamers will be able to sign up for Crucible through playcrucible.com. This story will be updated when more information becomes available.