As players begin to receive acceptance notices for the upcoming Elden Ring Nightreign playtest, some successful applicants are taking the opportunity to try and make some extra money. Revealed at The Game Awards 2024, Nightreign is, surprisingly, a break from FromSoftware’s traditional Soulslike formula, taking elements from roguelikes and battle royales to create a new, co-op focused experience. While the game has yet to receive a set release date, a pre-launch playtest will allow some players the opportunity to experience it firsthand.

Unfortunately, as reported by TheGamer, the hype over the impending Nightreign playtest has led to some applicants scalping their codes on eBay, with prices as high as £400 on the UK site, and $250 in the US – several times the price of the actual full game, which will cost a relatively modest $40 USD. Even for lower-priced offers, it’s worth noting that the Nightreign playtest will only run for fairly specific three-hour periods from February 14-16.

For Those Who Didn’t Get An Elden Ring Nightreign Code, There’s A Costly Solution

Scalpers Are Selling Elden Ring Nightreign Codes For Ridiculous Prices

Of course, as with any playtest or closed beta, there will be applicants who inevitably miss out, which can be especially frustrating for longtime fans who are eagerly anticipating a game’s release. For those fans, buying a code from scalpers can technically count as a “solution”, but given the playtest’s limited runtime, that money would be better spent on something else – not to mention, the practice of scalping codes for ridiculous prices is something that shouldn’t be rewarded.

The better solution, in this case, could be to just wait for the game’s full release, where it will, again, cost $40, and be a permanent purchase of a full game, and not access to a limited-run online playtest. While Nightreign doesn’t have a set release date yet, it has been announced for 2025, so even players who didn’t get accepted to the beta will be able to get their hands on it before too long. Even in the case that these codes are verifiably real, actually buying them isn’t the right move.

The Elden Ring Nightreign Playtest Is Set To Begin Soon

The Nightreign Playtest Begins on February 14

For those who did receive a code, Nightreign‘s playtest begins on February 14, and ends two days later on February 16, though players won’t have access to the game at all times during that period. Instead, for the three days that the playtest will run, players will be able to access it across five three-hour sessions, running in Pacific Time, from 3pm-6pm and 7pm-10pm on February 14, 11am-2pm on February 15, then repeating the 14th’s time windows on February 16.

Although scalpers are attempting to take advantage of Nightreign‘s hype to make some extra money, the extremely limited availability of the playtest itself makes buying your way in an unappealing move – especially when that money could go towards buying the full game instead. For anyone who didn’t get accepted to the playtest for Elden Ring Nightreign, simply waiting for the full release is a much better move.