Today’s email out to the beta testers has drawn much discussion over the possible reasons for closing the beta servers. James Nichols, community coordinator for EA Mythic, tried to clarify a few things for the community and give us an update as to what we can expect from this extended server downtime.
Greetings all!
Recently, all WAR Beta participants received a letter stating our plan to end this phase of the closed beta test this Wednesday, October 10th. We periodically close Beta, our last closure being in March of this year, to focus on major improvements and polish. The next phase of Beta will reopen in early December with plenty of new and improved content, art and systems for our beta-testers.
We are very proud to have reached this point in development. Beta has been going very well and the testing community is extremely active. Excitement around the game continues to grow and the team is looking forward to enhancing many features already in the game as well as continuing to add new features to an already great game.
Based on player feedback, our own observations and our current schedule, we have set the following major development goals:
- Improve open field skirmishes and battlefield objectives with major enhancements.
- Provide players with even more options to customize their character both through their abilities and visual appearance.
- Continue to enhance Public Quests and the PQ System.
- Prepare the elves for their release into the world!
When the beta reopens, we look forward to welcoming back all of our current testers, as well as many new faces. Shortly after re-opening the doors, we will be inviting the first wave of guilds into the beta to really get things rolling.Thank you!
– The Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Team
From what I understand from reading forums and listening to what people have to say, WAR has had a few issues during it’s development that could be the cause for this downtime. I am uncertain as to what these details might be, just that they do exist. Hopefully with time and resources to correct any problems we will still see WAR in Q1 2008. Cross your fingers.
Rusty over at Flying Labs has said on numerous occasions that he’s betting it misses Q1 2008… this is sort of signaling to me he may be right. But it could also be not so big a deal. I dunno… it’s just kind of unheard of.
Unless of course you’re the Spellborn guys.