Perfect World Entertainment and its European division - Perfect World Europe B.V. - announced that the free-to-play hack and slash dungeon-crawling MORPG, Rusty Hearts, will be launching into open beta concurrently for North American and European players on September 13, 2011.

"Since acquiring the license to operate Rusty Hearts earlier this year, it's been our great pleasure working with Windysoft on the game's localization," said Alan Chen, CEO of Perfect World Entertainment Inc. "It's been exciting to see the enthusiasm and support that players have shown for Rusty Hearts and we are thrilled to continue our partnership with Windysoft to bring this unique online gaming experience to our European and North American players. As we soon release the game into open beta, we are fully prepared to provide great services and support to the influx of Rusty Hearts' players and we look forward to welcoming them."

Based on user feedback, the open beta will feature major updates including the removal of the Stamina system and completely customizable gamepad button layouts. Instead of a limited amount of dungeon runs, players will now have unlimited access to the dungeons. Players that play Rusty Hearts with a gamepad will have the ability to remap the controls to their own preference as well.

Besides an entirely new hub world containing unreleased dungeons and a fresh batch of quests for players to explore, the next phase will offer an extended level cap that will challenge players to go farther and fight harder than was previously possible in the closed beta.

For more information on Rusty Hearts and the upcoming events, visit rustyhearts.perfectworld.com . The Rusty Hearts closed beta test will end on September 8 at 2pm PST. The open beta will begin on September 13.