The War Z moves into beta, world map increased by 50 percent

Online zombie-survival game The War Z has made the transition into its beta phase, developer Hammerpoint Interactive announced today.

The entire world map has been opened for the beta, doubling the area players have to explore, and new features such as additional marketplace items are on the way. The beta also includes new playable characters to choose from, in-game clan support and identification tags and clan chat.

Hammerpoint is also giving special perks to previous alpha players and will replace the Survivor, Pioneer and Legend game packs with three new ones. These new content packs will include guest keys (which grant access to new War Z players) and a small cache of in-game currency.

The War Z will remain in beta for a short time before moving into the game's complete Foundation version, according to executive producer Sergey Titov. The developer also shared that the game has amassed more than 500,000 players during its alpha phase.

Interested players can get in on the beta by purchasing the game off its official website.