The Daily Populous Sunday August 15th, 2021 evening edition
Authored by eurogamer.net and submitted by a_Ninja_b0y

EA has issued a start warning to those playing the Battlefield 2042 technical playtest this weekend: break NDA and face a potential ban from the final game.

Battlefield 2042's closed playtest kicked off on Thursday with PC, and has now brought Xbox into the fold (the planned PlayStation test was cancelled at the last minute due to a "critical issue"). Predictably, gameplay footage leaked online, which EA yesterday scrambled to pull offline.

An NDA (non-disclosure agreement) is typically required from video game publishers for tests such as this, and aims to prevent the sharing of information, impressions or assets from the playable build.

Adam Freeman, lead community manager at EA Studios Europe, took to Twitter to issue the warning to those who were selected to take part in the test.

"Reminder: our Technical Playtest is under NDA, and via invitation only," Freeman said.

Then: "codes for Xbox have started to roll out, and if you're thinking about sharing them to a friend, don't - they won't work.

"You also don't want to share your account information with folks either, that's going to end badly for you.

In another tweet, Freeman warned: "You're under NDA for this playtest, so videos, screenshots and streaming from this playtest result in strikes on your channels."

And finally: "Break the rules, expect to lose access to both the technical playtest, future EA tests, and potentially access to 2042 itself when it releases.

"We've already removed plenty of people from the playtest in these past 48 hours, and they won't be able to play this weekend."

Despite EA's ongoing attempts to take footage down, and the warning from EA, even more gameplay leaked online today, including one video 22 minutes long. At the time of this article's publication, multiple videos showing gameplay were doing the rounds on YouTube and social media after some streamed DICE's upcoming shooter.

An open beta is due out in September, with launch proper set for 22nd October.

Strongpillow on August 15th, 2021 at 16:21 UTC »

So many edge lords in this comment section. When y'all get much older you'll have a bad time if you don't realize how important contracts are and the shit you can get into from breaching them. Doesn't matter what the context os or how innocent y'all niave little kiddos think it is. Breaching an NDA is serious stuff.

Liara_Bae on August 15th, 2021 at 12:31 UTC »

Some people are just soo stupid. Do they not know what NDA stands for?? To be frank, they got off lightly, They are well within their rights to sue for breach of contract if they wanted. The only thing protecting the players is anonymity. Bloody lucky.

RageBash on August 15th, 2021 at 10:17 UTC »

Do they think that they won't make new account and buy the game there instead of their main account. It's not like accounts are registered to an actual person with some biometric system. I wish they were so cheaters would get permanent bans.