The World War II RTS "Company of Heroes 3" (opens in new tab) will be released in February, but before that, a multiplayer technical test will be available on Steam starting January 11.

This technical test is open to everyone and the way to participate is very simple: simply go to the Company of Heroes 3 Steam page (opens in a new tab) and click on the "Request Access" button to the playtest, located just below the pre-purchase option. Click again to confirm and you're done. You will be notified by email when the test has started. You will also be prompted to download the test version immediately if you signed up after the test had already started.

There have already been several multiplayer tests of "Company of Heroes 3" and we have experienced a bit of the campaign as well.

Unfortunately, players participating in the upcoming technical test will not be able to experience the campaign. This is because the test is multiplayer-only and is primarily intended to stress-test Relic's servers in advance of release. But as executive producer David Littman told us in December (opens in new tab), it's also a good opportunity to see if newcomers to the series will be interested in this title. Given the price, i.e., free, I have to agree.

The playtest will feature 1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3, and 4vs4 PvP and AI skirmishes between four factions (US Army, British Army, Wehrmacht, and Deutsches Afrikakorps, which for some reason is classified separately from the Wehrmacht). The test will begin on January 11 at 10:00 am PT (1:00 pm CST) and will run until the same time on January 16. Downtime is scheduled for January 12 from 1:00 pm PT (4:00 pm PT) to 3:00 pm PT (6:00 pm PT), but the exact timing will depend on the number of players.

To play, players will need the following:

Minimum:

Recommended:

"Your participation will help us prepare for launch by testing our infrastructure on a larger scale," Relic's full technical testing announcement reads.

"This testing will also help us identify new bugs and issues that can only be discovered if thousands of people play the game at the same time.

"Feedback during this testing is very important. While the game is essentially ready for launch, feedback on your experience, from faction balance to units to systems, will inform fixes and patches in the first weeks and months of the game's life. It will also help us improve quality of life, prioritize features, and future iterations of gameplay elements and content.

Relic also shared a list of known issues and bugs present in playtesting: