No, it’s not another April Fool’s Day joke. Now that we have that squared away I wanted to share a quote from Mark Jacobs where he talks about his expectations for Warhammer’s Beta Application response:
Folks,
Actually, I’d be surprised if we didn’t hit 1M once we start taking beta apps for our Asian partners. Even without Asia, based on our current sign-up rate, we should blow through 750K and we have a decent shot at 1M. Since we have already far surpassed my initial goal, I’m quite happy with what we have. And since I’m sure somebody will ask this, my goal, post EA, was to have 500K signed up in NA and Europe.
Mark
That’s pretty impressive. I think that’s slightly higher than WoW was before it hit the Asian market (not that it matters because the industry has grown so much since then) but don’t quote me on that. Regardless of how you look at it the desire for beta slots in a mmorpg these days is high. To have that many potentially interested players signing up to try out a game says a lot about the market for games like WAR. I think this is also exactly why so many of the CEOs want to get a piece of the action.
I think Warhammer will be the first game since WoW to successfully break into the million player mark — and they say people don’t like PvP anymore /laugh.
One thing’s for sure though… my chances of getting into beta really are one in a million now. 
April 1st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
We’ve had our applications in for so long! Chooooseee us!!!
April 1st, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Yeah, I had mine in within the first 5 minutes of the beta center going live.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Sadly I think interest in ‘beta testing’ for any MMO is much higher than it used to be. Sadly I don’t think there are 750,000 people out there dying to test WAR, but rather 749,738 people dying for a free demo of WAR. The public perception of a game’s beta period is that beta = free game. Wooo!
Then they realize their free game is a broken piece of sh$t (hellooo, it’s BETA!?!) and become bitter internet hatemongers.
That said . . . pick me, pick me!
April 1st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
@ Graktar: I 100% agree.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:42 pm
They actually dethroned Smash Brothers when they announced that CE too on the sales charts. I don’t think Mark has to worry, they’ll sell plenty of copies.
I just hope they truly deliver what we all know they’re capable of.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 am
[...] over at Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog has posted a note on the Warhammer Online beta. According to an interview with Mark Jacobs, EA [...]
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 am
Even though as Graktar stated that many are probably only looking for a “free demo”, I think we won’t have trouble finding people to play with on the release day (nor on the Pre-start day), assuming the game doesn’t turn out to be a giant stinker when the Open Beta starts.
Just saw this video from a french convention:
http://www.war-esp.net/index.php?mod=video_goa_event
And I gotta say, the game looks vastly better than It did 6 months ago. And now I feel a little better inside about having to wait until autumn to play
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:14 am
Means nothing, because only a fraction of that will end up paying for and playing the game one way or another.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:44 am
“One thing’s for sure though… my chances of getting into beta really are one in a million now.”
Or guaranteed if you bought a CE pre-order!
@Graktar – Amen, brutha!
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 am
In Nexon world, WAR has 750,000 “customers”.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 am
^^^ Essentially that’s right on the mark. At this stage investors, share holders, CEOs, corporate moguls, whoever… they’re interested in these numbers.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
[...] are also only ~600,000 people signed up for closed beta (though they plan on breaking 1M according to Keen). 60,000 CE copies assumes that 10% of of all current beta sign-up customers are [...]
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 am
[...] can find more commentary on it over at Keen and [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 1:47 am
someone got warhammer beta screenshot in lotro forum. its not the highest quality shot.
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=130539
April 29th, 2008 at 8:32 am
[...] Keen reports that Mark Jacobs expects over one million beta sign-ups before it’s all said and done. Holy schnikey! [...]