One of the incentives to pick up the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm (released on Friday) was the guaranteed inclusion of the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta.

Epic Games has now announced (conveniently after the release of Bulletstorm) that the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta will actually be open to anyone with an Xbox LIVE Gold account. This comes as somewhat of a slap in the face to those gamers who may have paid an extra $20-odd for the Epic Edition, and particularly those who picked up Bulletstorm purely for the beta access; presumably, if you planned on participating in the multiplayer beta, you would most likely already have Xbox LIVE Gold access.

It's no secret that the promise of beta access is somewhat of a unit shifter. The Halo 3 beta is known to have driven sales of Crackdown, and similarly with Halo 3: ODST for the Halo: Reach beta (the game discs of which were required for participation in these exclusive betas).

The Gears of War 3 beta will take place in mid-April.