SEGA is holding an open beta test for its upcoming kart racer, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, giving you a chance to play the game before launch on 25th September.
In order to ensure you're fully prepared for the beta, we've put together this guide, covering everything you need to know, like dates, start and end times, and what's included.
What Time Does the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Open Beta Start?
The open beta test for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds takes place over several days, and will be open to all players during this period.
The Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta begins on Friday 29th August at the following times. Check the bottom of the list for your local time:
- North America: 9pm (Thu) PDT / 10pm (Thu) MDT / 11pm (Thu) CDT / 12am EDT
- UK/Ire: 5am BST
- Europe: 6am CEST / 7am EEST
- Asia/Oceania: 1pm JST / 12pm AWST / 2pm AEST
The beta will be live from the above times, and will conclude on Tuesday 2nd September at the following times:
- North America: 9pm (Mon) PDT / 10pm (Mon) MDT / 11pm (Mon) CDT / 12am EDT
- UK/Ire: 5am BST
- Europe: 6am CEST / 7am EEST
- Asia/Oceania: 1pm JST / 12pm AWST / 2pm AEST
How Do You Join the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Open Beta?
There are no special requirements for taking part in the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta test. You do not need to sign up anywhere, nor do you need to pre-order. The beta will be freely available to everyone for its duration.
You can pre-load the beta right now.
On What Platforms Is the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Open Beta Taking Place?
You will be able to play the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta on the following platforms:
- PS5*
- Xbox Series X|S*
- Nintendo Switch
- PC via Steam and Epic Games Store
*Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will also be available on PS4 and Xbox One, but only the current-gen consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S) are compatible with the open beta test.
What's Included in the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Open Beta?
The Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta test will feature a variety of playable characters, tracks, and modes.
Characters
Participants in the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta will be able to take control of 12 playable Sonic characters. In addition, Joker will join the roster as part of a special event, which starts on 31st August:
- Sonic
- Tails
- Knuckles
- Amy
- Cream & Cheese
- Shadow
- Omega
- Jet
- Wave
- Storm
- Zazz
- Dr. Eggman
- Joker (from 31st August)
Tracks
There will be a total of 16 tracks to play in the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta. This number comprises 9 main courses and 7 CrossWorlds (the single-lap areas you warp to mid-race):
Courses
- E-Stadium
- Metal Harbor
- Rainbow Garden
- Wonder Museum
- Water Palace
- Mystic Jungle
- Apotos
- Sand Road
- Colorful Mall
CrossWorlds
- Roulette Road
- Dinosaur Jungle
- Kraken Bay
- Magma Planet
- Sky Road
- Dragon Road
- Holoska
Modes
During the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta, you will be able to take part in several modes, including:
- Grand Prix — a four-race event in which you accumulate points based on your finish position.
- Time Trial — speed through tracks to try and complete a lap in the fastest time you can.
- World Match — online multiplayer races against other open beta participants across all platforms.
- Joker Festival — a special 24-hour event in which you join one of three teams, and earn points by completing challenges during races.
What Rewards Can You Earn in the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Open Beta?
Those that take part in the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta can earn themselves a few in-game rewards, redeemable in the full game when it launches. These include:
- 2x Sonic-themed decals for your vehicles
- 1x player title
To redeem these rewards, you must log into the full game with the same account and on the same platform you played the beta test.
Do You Need PS Plus to Play the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Open Beta?
No, you do not need a PS Plus membership in order to play the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta test.
The same applies on Xbox; you do not need Game Pass Core (or higher) to take part.
However, those playing on Nintendo Switch will need a Nintendo Switch Online membership to play the World Match and Joker Festival modes. Meanwhile, Grand Prix and Time Trial can be played without an NSO subscription.
Will you be hopping into the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds open beta test? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments 13
Will be downloading and playing for sure! See you all online!
Thanks for adding the "Your Local Time" to the bottom of the lists. Personally I would have put it on top b/c most people are probably going to stop reading time zones after finding out what time it is in theirs but I appreciate you need to meet some metric quota for time spent people reading a page so fair game. Now that I know it's at the bottom of the lists I can skip on down.😁
Not being on Switch 2 is kinda a bummer but this isn't the place to talk about that any further.
So is this 96 straight hours of gameplay? It's not 1 of those an hour here an hour there but most of them while I'm sleeping? That's pretty nice of them.
Oh and for those of you who don't know this is the end of summer holiday weekend in the US, Monday is Labor day, then the kids are back at school. So it's a nice time for them to have this run through Monday night.👍
Definitely giving this a go. Interested to see how similar it is to previous Sonic racing games, I did enjoy them, particularly Transformed.
Have they said when it’ll be available to download?
@rjejr "So is this 96 straight hours of gameplay?"
I suppose that depends in part on whether or not their servers survive for the entire window. Hopefully the crashes are kept to the racetrack, and not the servers.
@RobN OK so I suppose if you want to be technical, they are attempting to keep it going for 96 straight hours. There are no guarantees, I was just looking for their baseline. I guess I'm just used to these things just being an hour or so here and there. Thanks.
@springer17 Transformed is one of the GoAT kart racers.
One of the few things I missed when I sold my Series X was playing that at locked 60FPS.
Played it this morning, its great can't wait for it to release fully 👍
Playing on Series X. I like it. The new controls are fine. This demo lacks the refinements of Team Sonic Racing, e.g. the camera, but has flying sections that feel similar to Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. That's awesome. The items seem more balanced than in the previous demo. My only disappointment is that the water sections feel less intense than Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Wave Race and somewhat simplified a la Mario Kart because of the physics. I recommend it, but I'd polish it a little bit if I was Sega.
Game is fantastic, feels slower than in the beta test though, but online is still chaotic and I enjoy it that way, even if it is difficult getting to first place, but when you do, it feels great.
Only complain I have is how limited the control customizing is. Would love to accelerate with the R2 button.
The demo is really selling the game. It feels really good to play, and it runs and loads surprisingly well on Switch, too!
Been playing a bunch over the weekend and unfortunately, I hate it. I had really high hopes but there’s almost nothing I enjoy. There’s a lot of detail I could go into but ultimately, a lot could be summed up by “too much going on”. It’s super cluttered in every sense, from visuals to gameplay mechanics and audio. Feels messy and doesn’t hit the right nostalgia buttons for me so I’ll be going back to Transformed on PC instead. What a shame.
There is in option to change the controls to the traditional R2 for acceleration (although the options show as R1)
This transformed the demo for me as I was not enjoying it with the default controls; this is coming from playing Disney Speedstorm, which I still think is the better racer (handling & graphics wise) and having been playing it daily for the last 2 years my muscle memory is hard to change
For me Speedstrom is now at the meta games stage where the racing takes second stage to upgrading my racers (now at over 100 characters !!)
Looking forward to Sonic being a more traditional racer with Gran Prix to play through, rather than Speedstorm's live service mechanics
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...