Massive 500 vs 500 Sci-fi Shooter PlanetSide Arena coming January 29

Developer Daybreak Games has unveiled the newest entry into their online shooter series with PlanetSide Arena. The sci-fi multiplayer shooter will feature insanely large battles of up to 1000 players and is releasing very soon, on January 29. You can pre-order PlanetSide Arena right now on Steam. Check out the first look at the gameplay!

PlanetSide Arena is going to offer three game modes at launch. Massive Clash, Solo and Team Battle Royale. The later marks a first for the series with the introduction of a battle royale mode. Not a surprise, as it’s quickly becoming a standard game mode for new games.

It may sound a bit barebones in terms of content but Daybreak is promising to introduce new game modes like Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, Search and Destroy and Global Conquest in the future each new season.

This is probably one of the bigger points of differentiation to its predecessor. PlanetSide Arena will not be a free-to-play title but instead will feature paid Seasons which contain new game modes and content.

No doubt, the bread and butter of PlanetSide games have always been the massive combined-arms battles which really convey the scale of large combats like very few other games. As such, being able to drop into 1000 player matches sound intense. It’s important to note however that at launch only 250 vs. 250 matches will be available.

Matches start by choosing between the three classes on offer, Assault, Engineer and Medic. Besides weapons and unique class skills, each player also comes equipped with a jetpack and a vehicle to easier traverse the massive battlefields.

Sounds all pretty sweet but not all fans are thrilled. PlanetSide Arena is not a direct sequel to PlanetSide 2 and thus feels like the developer jumping on the battle royale bandwagon instead of staying true to their self.