Skip to main content

Long read: How TikTok's most intriguing geolocator makes a story out of a game

Where in the world is Josemonkey?

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

The Finals open beta welcomed a whopping 7.5m players to the fray

Arena borealis

Promo show for The Finals showing a figure in a cowboy style hat against a blue/purple background
Image credit: Embark
Victoria Kennedy avatar
News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter
Published on
12 comments

The open beta for The Finals - the upcoming destruction-heavy PvP FPS from Ex-EA and DICE exec Patrick Söderlund's Embark Studios - is now over, and it seems to have been remarkably successful.

Following its conclusion, Embark announced that a whopping 7.5 million players joined the beta to battle it out among the masses.

Here's a trailer for The Finals, which was released ahead of the open beta.Watch on YouTube

"It's been a thrilling week for the entire team, one that we'll never forget. We're utterly dazzled by your kindness, openness, and excitement throughout the entire Open Beta period," it wrote in a blog post over on Steam.

"Everyone at Embark is full of gratitude, and it will fuel us as we continue to develop The Finals."

The studio closed by stating it was time to "hunker down" (an underused expression, in my opinion) and get to work addressing the various fixes and improvements for the game.

"Stick around folks. We'll be back."

The Finals welcomed 7.5 million players. Here is developer Embark thanking those that joined, with a picture of a female character making a love heart shape with her hands and a rifle strapped to her back. She has a cat eared headband on
Image credit: Embark

We got our first look at The Finals' gameplay last year, when its eye-popping and utterly chaotic pre-alpha footage was shared ahead of a closed alpha test.

Since that time, it has had a closed beta test, and now its most recent open beta.

It hasn't been all rosy for the developer, however. Soon after this most recent beta went live, many criticised the studio for its use of AI for commentator voice overs in The Finals.

Embark went on to respond to this backlash, telling Eurogamer "making games without actors isn't an end goal for Embark" and that the use of AI text-to-speech is based on real voices.

Read this next