Dreadnought Doing One Last Account Wipe Before Open Beta

If you're the type of person who plays games in closed beta for hundreds of hours, I commend you. All your testing work is invaluable to developers and makes for a better experience for us all. Me, I can't do it. I'll play enough to get a taste for the game and whether I like it, but I just can't invest all that time and energy into a game knowing it'll all be wiped out before the open beta or launch.

That soon won't be an issue with Dreadnought. The final account reset for Grey Box's space shooter will go down next week, taking the game offline for three or four days. When it comes back, everything players have earned in game will be gone, though anything purchased with real money, as well as currency and special promotional items, will be returned.

Interestingly, this doesn't herald the start of the open beta. According to Grey Box:

Why are we resetting accounts now, instead of at the launch of the open beta? It allows us to level the playing field ahead of open beta—and gives all players currently in closed beta an opportunity to get a head start!

Which is ... sort of contradictory? You can't "level the playing field" and then give players "an opportunity to get a head start." Players with hundreds of hours of progress in closed beta will lose it all, but they'll have the chance to build it back up, at least in part, in the time between the wipe and the start of open beta -- which doesn't have a set date yet. Let's hope it doesn't take too long.