APB: Reloaded is kicking off its closed beta testing this week. The latest APB: Reloaded blog states that the first iteration of the closed beta client has been completed and the first wave of testers will be shooting their way through the streets of San Paro this week. The beta invitations will go out in waves, divided by territories. So it could still be a little while before certain testers get their metaphorical keys to the city.

Some cautionary notes first: we are rolling the Beta out in waves. Wave 1 is going to be US-West (since that's close to our base of operations), which means US-East and Europe we will have to wait just A LITTLE BIT. But for good measure we will let a few people from Europe and South America actually play on US-West to test high-ping-time traffic as well. Wave 2 will be Europe. And Wave 3 will be US-East. We also have a Wave 4 planned for Sao Paulo, Brazil, since we have a datacenter there - however, that location will probably NOT be live until Open Beta or even later (importing high end six-core Intel hardware into Brazil turns out to be tricky, expensive and time consuming :) ).

The blog also contains a rundown of demographics from those that completed the beta application process. Not surprisingly, 97% were male with a majority between the ages of 18 to 31. Additionally, you'll find the first batch of closed beta patch notes tapped on to the end of the blog. Check out the full APB: Reloaded blog for all the latest beta details.