Firefall paints a beautifully devastating vision of Earth, 200 years in the future. The promise of a new clean energy source, Crystite, leads to the disastrous arrival of the Melding, a hostile energy storm that engulfs most of our home planet. Earth’s surviving humans must band together in the eye of the Melding storm to save our species. Unfortunately, a new danger emerges as a bloodthirsty race known as The Chosen threatens humanity’s survival.

Red 5 considers Firefall a “service” and therefore believes that it does not fit into the traditional game launch template. As a result, Firefall’s invite-only beta will continue well into 2012. Similar to Minecraft or Gmail, the “beta” tag will likely be dropped some time after beta invitations have been widely distributed. We don't have an exact date as to when this transition will happen, as Red 5 stands by the paradigm, “it’s done when it’s done” – ensuring Firefall delivers the best possible experience. Red 5 has previously outlined this process in the official Firefall forums.

Firefall is still in the first stage of its invite-only closed beta, focused on stressing the server infrastructure. This means that while Red 5 will continue to scale up the number of participants with additional invites, the player pool is going to remain extremely limited for a while longer. This exclusivity will continue throughout the current PvP testing schedule and into the open world PvE phase – when the servers go up 24/7.

Players will protect the Earth through the use of high-tech battleframes, which can be customized extensively to unlock the power of Firefall’s class-based combat. Battleframes allow players to specialize in their favorite style of play, while giving them the flexibility to swap and trade their way to new configurations on-the-fly. Whether you enjoy supporting your team, aggressively assaulting an enemy position, or sneaking behind enemy lines, there is a battleframe for you.

Firefall will feature a free-to-play model that allows players to experience every detail of the vibrant world without having to pay a penny. Updates to the game, dynamic world events, and other content will also be offered without a price tag, while a marketplace will allow fans to purchase optional enhancements.