Starhawk private beta starting in November

Dylan Jobe, president of Lightbox Interactive, has announced a private beta for Starhawk will start in November for Warhawk players in North America and Europe.

Players will receive "special email invites" containing beta keys, and attendees will be let in to test the game in waves in order to manage the server load.

"The order in which players are granted access is a dark art known only to Sith-IT-Managers and Gywn, Lord of Cinder," joke Jobe, "but, suffice it to say it’s a mix of your rank/level in Warhawk, your involvement in the Warhawk community, and a few other magical parameters."

Sony has setup a secure forum where all Warhawk players with access to the beta will be able to talk directly with Jobe, and other team members at LightBox Interactive. Special PlayStation Network handles will be posted so testers will know when they are playing with one of the developers online.

In the private beta, the team will be validating the game's SkillScore player ranking system, weapon balancing and the Build and Battle game balance. A Hot-Fix system has also be implemented to help the team push out updates on a daily basis if needed.

"We’ll be going into more details on which features will be included in the private beta in the coming weeks, but for now, I hope our Warhawk player community is as excited about this opportunity as we are," said Jobe.

All beta participants will also receive a "special gift” upon Starhawk's release.

For those who aren't Warhawk players, early access keys for the public beta will be included in new copies of Uncharted 3 in both Europe and North America. There's no date set for this round of testing as of yet.

Starhawk is out next year on PS3.