Microsoft's Larry Hryb, also known as Major Nelson to Xbox fans the world over, announced that the company is throwing open registration for the Xbox Live 2013 beta. Microsoft last month confirmed that it would be phasing out Microsoft points in favor of transactions in players' own local currencies and Hryb said today that those taking part in the beta would get a chance to experience that. As well as the change in how transactions go down, beta testers will enjoy improvements to overall performance.
Sign ups are being handles through the Xbox Dashboard via a special Xbox Beta Program tile. Those in Japan aren't able to sign up (for now) and Microsoft says space is limited, though the company didn't elaborate any more on numbers. Other than the aforementioned bump in performance (and the lack of Microsoft Points), there's no hints as to what beta testers can expect, and those taking part in the program are bound by an NDA, so they can't share any juicy details with us either.
The beta will close once all available spots have filled up.
