Michael Beckwith 
Superhero PvP shooter Marvel Rivals is currently running a closed beta session but is the beta free? And will it stay that way?
The beta began on July 23 and is scheduled to run until August 5. Judging by its early player counts on PC, Marvel Rivals seems to already be proving popular despite not being available to the general public. Such strong figures will also only want to make more people check it out to see what they’re missing. Especially since the beta is adding two new characters – Thor and Jeff the Land Shark – on July 27.
The full game still lacks a launch window, so there’s no telling how long everyone else will have to wait until they can try Marvel Rivals for themselves. Unless an open beta is announced, this closed beta is the only way to experience the game. But do prospective players need to put money down if they can’t bear the wait?
Can the Marvel Rivals beta be played for free?
The Marvel Rivals beta is completely free and isn’t gated behind a paywall.
However, sign-ups for it have since ended. As such, there are only two ways to access the beta. The first is via Twitch drops. Until July 28, anyone who connects their Twitch account to the Marvel Rivals website and watches at least an hour of any Marvel Rivals stream has the chance to receive a key for the beta. There’s a unique sign-up process and are numerous restrictions to this, so make sure to find out how to get a Marvel Rivals Twitch drop.
The second way is via other players. People participating in the beta have the opportunity to earn extra codes they can share with friends. It is also worth following the official Marvel Rivals social media accounts. Developer NetEase Games may run special events that give away keys for the beta.
Technically, there is another way of obtaining a beta key, and it’s by buying one second-hand. On eBay, people who’ve managed to get their hands on beta keys are selling them, typically at high prices. At the time of writing, most of them are going from $40 or $50 to as high as $80. This is making them just as expensive as full price games, if not more so. Even the cheapest one available at the moment is roughly $25. Frankly, there’s no reason to spend any amount of money on what is ultimately temporary access to an unfinished product that will be free-to-play at a later date.
Will Marvel Rivals have microtransactions?
Marvel Rivals will be free-to-play, but will most assuredly have microtransactions.
The game is already confirmed to be a free-to-play title in the same vein as other PvP shooters like Overwatch 2 and Apex Legends. Exactly what will be available for purchase isn’t known yet, and there’s no word of the beta offering any microtransactions.
This makes sense, though, since it’s not the full game and NetEase has said no progress will be saved once the beta ends. However, exclusive rewards can be earned through gameplay, which can be carried over to the full game once it comes out.
As for the kind of microtransactions one can expect, alternate skins for Marvel Rivals’ many playable superheroes are a guarantee. No doubt there will also be a paid battle pass alongside a free one that offers fewer rewards since that’s become something of a standard in free-to-play titles.
