Share Gears of War 3 beta invites beginning May 8

The "Never Fight Alone" phase of the Gears of War 3 beta will begin May 8, allowing players to invite friends into the foray. Participants in the beta will earn "buddy tokens" by finishing challenges or completing tasks ... like giving Microsoft more money.

Every person who has played a game in the Gears beta will receive a buddy token. Additional ways to obtain a token are by purchasing any Gears content off the Xbox Live Marketplace or by adding a 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription to your account. Tokens can also be earned by having played 20 hours or more of the Gears 3 beta -- time already spent does count -- and by playing more than 100 hours of "any Gears of War title, lifetime to date."

Players have until May 4 (this Wednesday!) to complete the tasks and earn up to five tokens. Participants don't need to take any addition action for their tokens, and the alpha-numeric codes will be distributed by email starting May 8 (so make sure your account details are up to date). This will give players a week to team up with their buddies for some Gears 3 action before the beta ends on May 15.

is it going to be a open beta now?

No, its not an open beta, but for the last week of the beta they are letting people invite one other person and up to five people if they meet certain requirements.




You've been tearing up the Gears of War® 3 beta for a couple days now, and it's almost time to let you choose which of your friends you want to bring into the fun.

That's right, we're going to let you bring up to five of your friends into the fight in the last week of the beta. Together, you'll get the chance to preview the game before most people and help make Gears of War 3 even better.



We're giving you one extra code just for being in the beta.*

Want to bring even more people in? You'll get one more code for doing each of the following things. You can do any or all of them and get one extra code for each.*


*

Purchasing any Gears of War content from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace—that includes game add-ons, games from Games on Demand, and Avatar gear.


*


Spending 20 or more hours playing the beta from today on, helping us make Gears of War 3 a better experience.


*

Adding 12 months of Xbox LIVE Gold to your membership—if you already have several months or more remaining, the time will be added on to the end of your subscription.

*
Having at least 100 hours of gameplay logged on the Gears of War franchise. That includes single player and multiplayer across Gears of War, Gears of War 2, and their add-ons.

Sick of playing the Gears of War 3 against the unwashed masses? Microsoft and Epic Games have you covered, with a unique promotion that'll run during the final week of the game's multiplayer beta. On May 8, Microsoft will email every beta participant who's completed at least one match with a code they can use to invite a friend to join the fun.

According to Destructoid, additional codes will be made available to gamers who do any of the following, up to a maximum of five invite codes --
Buy Gears of War through Xbox Live's Games on Demand. Alternatively, buy any piece of Gears DLC or Gears avatar stuff.
Clock up over 20 hours in the Gears of War 3 beta.
Buy a 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Have over 100 hours clocked up on any Gears of War game to date.
You've got until May 4 to do this, and on May 8, as the final week of the beta begins, Microsoft will begin sending out invite codes.