Update: The PC beta for the multiplayer portion of The Binding of Isaac: Repentance+ (if we’re giving the game its full name) is set to return imminently, Nicalis has confirmed.
The new release date for Isaac’s multiplayer beta is November 18, so not quite the game’s 10 year anniversary. However, to mark Isaac’s birthday, publisher Nicalis has dropped the price of the game and its expansions on PC, so if you’ve been waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger, now is that time.
As for all you lovely console-owning folks, you’ll be wanting to know what this means for you? Alas, “nothing” is the answer as there’s still no word on the release of multiplayer on console, and I just checked the Xbox store and there’s no discount either. As you were, then.
Back to the beta… if you want to know what happened and why the beta was taken down earlier this year, keep on reading below the fold.
Original: The Binding of Isaac’s online multiplayer alpha has been put on ice after someone datamined the latest build.
It’s a shame that one person’s actions have had such a widespread impact, because many of us had been enjoying the alpha, but after the most recent build, Greedier, was released to the public, one player was able to crack the code and access unreleased parts of the game.
To that end, first there was an announcement from Nicalis developer and Isaac producer Tyrone Rodriguez over on Twitter.com, where he confirmed what had happened:
PSA: The online alpha/beta of TBOI IsaacOnline is going offline until further notice due to someone datamining the game and ruining it for everyone else.
Why is The Binding of Isaac’s multiplayer beta offline?
Since the initial announcement, Rodriguez has elaborated on events in response to negativity from players who are disappointed that the online mode is now unavailable to them.
It has emerged that someone hacked the newest build so they could play unreleased content that wasn’t intended for public consumption, at least not yet anyway.
This individual then went a step further and shared this information with other players. Here’s how it was explained in a follow-up thread over on Twitter.com:
Hello! You may or may not know, #tboi #IsaacOnline alpha test was recently taken offline, but you might not know the reason why. Please continue reading if you’d like the answer
Someone took it upon themselves to hack the online version to play other modes, circumventing Greedier (this month’s test rotation) mode and shared how to do this hack with other players.
We know Isaac fans want to play Isaac online but the team need our tests to actually be tests and we’re internally looking into the best way to do this.
If the Isaac dev team can’t get the reports/feedback they need, it doesn’t make sense doing a public beta–this is the reason the team decided to take down the most recent test build.
Thanks to everyone who reached and contacted us. Getting online to a point where it’s super fun and super awesome and nothing will stop us from continuing to work on it.
Return confirmed for later this year (May 20 Update)
In a follow-up development, the beta – it’s probably a beta and not an alpha at this point – has been confirmed as returning in November this year, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Rebirth.
The news was confirmed over on TwitterX, where Edmund McMillen revealed the long-awaited announcement that the online testing will resume.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth was a remake of the original TBoI, and it released on PC on November 4, 2014. That means that there’s only a few months to wait before we can get our grubby hands on the online co-op portion of the game once again.
The Binding of Isaac: Repentance is an astonishing game and you can bet your poopy bum that it’s in our list of the best roguelikes and roguelites on PC.
