Warhammer Online delayed until Fall

I really did not expect to wake up to this. The countdown on War-Europe ended and brought with it interesting information on the collectors edition, but it also brought the news that Warhammer would be delayed until Fall ’08. I’m really feeling bummed about this announcement especially with how far the game has come over the past two months. We started to see more interviews, exclusives, hands-on, and Mythic actually used the word “complete” in reference to part of the game. Mythic (or rather Mark Jacobs who has become the voice and I guess the stand-in community manager for Mythic since he is the only one ever posting) has said that the game is “looking solid”.

Here’s the interesting information from Mark’s post — some are Q/A and some are direct quotes. If you want to read the entire thing then try your luck at getting the page to load on WHA.

  • “When’s the release date? We are only prepared to say that the game will launch Fall 2008. Given the highly competitive nature of the MMO industry right now, we feel it is best not to establish a set launch date at the present time.”
  • “It’s going to be a pretty crowded couple of quarters in the MMORPG space, why do you think WAR is going to be able to stand out? One of the lessons from developers like BioWare and Blizzard is that you can’t rush a great game to market. By taking the necessary time to make WAR a great game, we feel it will be able to stand out in any season. We would rather release a great game in the fall then a good one any other time.”
  • “The game was and is looking solid if we wanted to release something good but not something great. The fact that IGN and Gamespy (and more previews coming this week) saw the game, said that, etc. is testimony to how good the game is already. However, based on what we’ve seen and heard from our beta test, we just need a little bit more time to work on it.”
  • “Is there ANY WAY that this is a slightly early April Fool’s joke and in a few days we’re all going to be laughing about it and smoking cigars over freshly minted boxes of Warhammer Online?
    Sadly no.”

Acknowledging that the MMO scene is competitive yet choosing to release against WotLK instead of Conan seems completely foolish to me. Several factors are racing through my mind as to why they would release Q3/Q4 and I’m really questioning whether or not it’s to make the game better. Do they purposely want to go against WotLK in order to combat the subscribers that might leave WAR if it release before? Do they want to get closer to Xmas? Is this EA’s doing? Is this in response to the massive amount of beta leaks lately? My head is swimming with unanswered questions.

I’m getting ready for a long and boring summer where the only info to appease my thirst for anything WAR will be in response to this question: “How’s the beta going?” And the answer: “It’s going quite well. We’re getting tons of great feedback and overall, we are quite pleased with the game’s progress.” — Ironically that’s a quote from today’s post from Mark. At this point I would really prefer they drop the PR act and be a bit more candid to give us the real information. All we ever hear is “It’s going great!” and “Quite well” and “on track!” yet we are met with the worst possible scenario for a 2008 delay.

I feel strongly that if Mythic wants to maintain the level of hype they’ve seen over the past two months then they need to be much more forthcoming. The monthly lore updates on the Herald aren’t going to be enough. The exclusive forum posting on WHA isn’t going to be enough. We, the community for Warhammer Online, need more.

Alright, I got that off my chest. Now here are a few useful links.

Warhammer Online Pre-order site to redeem codes / In-depth Collectors Edition Info

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  • You and me both, bud. You and me both. I just about sprang out of bed this morning ready to process the big news stories of the day, but man, didn’t expect this…

  • More interesting tidbits. The questions are in bold and Mark’s answer follows.

    What are the things that WAR needs most polished in this stage of BETA?
    In no particular order UI needs polishing, some quests still need polishing, some PQs. And with all the work that we still have to do on the game to make it great (including balancing the classes for release), we wouldn’t have had time to polish them and still hit our Q2 schedule.

    When did you know that the game was going to be delayed?
    Once we knew that it was the right decision to delay the game, we then had a fair amount of talking to do whether it was to other folks in EA, GW, GOA and other partners. Once that was all done, we announced the delay. Because we are part of a large company like EA (and a publicly traded company) we had a lot of things that needed to be done before we could tell people. FYI, I spoke to GW about it only yesterday so it isn’t like we’ve been sitting on this for a year and only now announced it.

    Why is it such a long delay? We’re talking about 1/2 a year here.
    Well, depends on how things shake out. Our last launch date was in June so…

    why dont you just tell the public it’s on course for 2009? then if its early its early?
    Umm, because that would be lying. And if I lie to the president of the Games Label and then our CEO repeats that lie, bad things will happen. When we announce a date it is because the management team at Mythic believes that we can hit that date. Fall is thus a good date for release.

  • This always seems to happen to games that I’m highly anticipating. Sorry about that.

    I don’t think there’s any motivation behind the delay other than those stated. One could claim that by holding off a few more months (but still releasing before WotLK, which simply won’t be out before xmas) they’ll be able to lure away even more bored WoW players, since patch 2.4 hardly contains enough content to last 8 months (more like 1, maybe). However, their stated reasons seem reasonable enough.

    Also, keep in mind that Fall starts in September, and if things go well enough they might squeak in a late August release. We’re looking at a 3 month delay not a 6 month delay (especially if their only goal is more polish, wtf do you do to a game for 6 months of just polishing?).

    Now I need to figure out what I’m going to fill my summer with. WoW is virtually dead to me at this point, I don’t have enough friends playing EQ2 or CoH, and AoC doesn’t interest me. Time to reacquaint myself with single player PC games and my game consoles I suppose.

  • addendum: I am also tired of the facade that marketing for these companies puts on, its getting quite old and is so inaccurate, but they think it gets people more interested or something.

  • Agreed about the marketing. They’ve really started hyping the game, just in time for . . . a delay? Would they like to salt that wound as well, before they twist the knife? :p

  • Your assuming that Blizzard will be release WotLK in Q3 or Q4 of 2008.
    I’d be surprised if this turned out to be true. If Blizzard sticks to mantra ‘release when done’ and follows past behavior, we’ll see it early next year, Q1 or Q2 2009.

    However with competition rising and Blizzard may ‘rush’ whatever they have out this year. I guess we’ll see.

  • Clearly I’m disappointed in the news (I’d rather have the game in June than October).

    However, in the long run its not clear that this is a bad thing. Releasing the game with more class balance as opposed to less class balance will probably make the game more enjoyable for many people when it finally releases.

    Also, I’m with Robert on the WotLK issue, I can’t imagine Blizzard releasing WotLK in 2008. (Rising competition is all the more reason that WotLK needs a flawless release and great pres in order to bring back players who have left for other games.)

  • Ugh.

    All of my hype and feverish excitment for this game will burn out in a month or so.

    With the way they have been pushing it and releasing only tiny, unhelpful pieces of info and a stunningly low pace, it seemed like they were prepping us for something BIG…not getting the community hyped for a delay?

    This annoys me to no end. At least start telling us more about whats happening.

    In order to sustain me (and others im s ure) until FALL (!!!!!) they’re going to have to do better. You cant string people along forever.

  • I’m really all for their desire to polish and deliver a great game. I’m not too happy about how they spun the past two months in a direction they likely knew it wouldn’t go. They’ve known this delay is coming for a long time yet they let their hype machine plow on full steam ahead.

    On top of it all I’m sure it will be a Q4 November release. They’ll capitalize on the holiday season as best they can. I expect Blizzard to go into overdrive with WotLK to thwart it.

  • Write it down and tack it to the wall behind your computer: “Release dates are meaningless!” If the word meaningless isn’t echoing in your brain after a couple days, you’re not looking at your note enough.

    If the game’s good now, they might get it polished in a few months, notice that they still have time before their published “fall” release date, so they try to slip in a couple cool ideas that came up during that time and that cripples the game with a plague of last-minute bugs (ala Hellgate: London). Oops! looks like a winter release!

    There are a thousand scenarios in which the release date might get pushed back again, or forward. Hell, they could have a death that temporarily chokes their production process, like Sigil had with Keith Parkinson. All sorts of stuff could happen. That’s why Mythic and EA’s plans are irrelevant to the validity of a release date. Unless they’re talking only a month before release, they simply don’t know.

    “Release dates are meaningless.” And comments like “it’s looking great” never hint at the state of production. Sorry, man.

  • At least they weren’t cruel enough to sucker everyone into buying a collector’s edition, and THEN announce the delay. Actually, in a twisted way, this delay could turn out to be a brilliant marketing move…

    There’s more of an incentive to buy the CE if they extend the beta since “open beta” access is one of the key selling features. Maybe they’ll open up around the end of Q2 and you’ll have 2-3 months of beta play to satiate your WAR appetite until release.

  • Hey, could someone post what’s in the collector’s edition? My company’s web filter blocks pretty much all gaming sites so I can’t get to Warhammeronline.com (or places like gamestop, eb, etc).

  • Release dates are meaningless, I know that. We ALL know that.

    But the disappointment is still there and the frustration that it was more or less a blindside delay stings.

    For Graktar, a rough list:

    The WAR CE will include:
    # Exclusive Games Worksop Miniature depicting Greenskin warboss Brumlok, and shaman Gazbag

    # 128 page hardback graphic novel titled WAR: Prelude to WAR, written by Chad Hardin, Joe Abraham, Rahsan Ekedal, Tony Parker and Kevin Hopgood

    # 224 page art book, stuffed with making of info and concept drawings

    # European version will contain an exclusive mousepad

    # Bonus ingame content, such as: Librams of Insight item, a power-up which gives you +10% XP for an hour and can be used 3 times. 12 bonus quests, and 12 bonus character heads

    # Access to the open beta, so you can get a headstart on building your character and bonus ingame content such as access to Rittenbach’s Portable Camp, where you can heal wounds between battles

    # For preorders in shop, an extra PvE item, the Sentinale’s Amber Band

    # For preorders online, an extra PvE item, the Guardians’ Lolite Band

  • @Graktar:

    BOX EXCLUSIVES
    – GW miniature of Grumlok and Gazbag
    – Original graphic novel (128-page hardcover)
    – Art of Warhammer Online (224-page hardcover)

    IN-GAME EXCLUSIVES
    – Librams of Insight (3 uses; 110% XP for 60 minutes)
    – Rittenbach’s Portable Camp (“Rest your weary soul and heal your wounds between battles”)
    – Three different rings depending on which online site you pre-order from (increases chance of doing additional corporeal, elemental, or spiritual damage on hit)
    – 12 different quests (1 PvE and 1 RvR for each race)
    – 12 different character face models (a male/female per race)

    OPEN BETA ACCESS
    Be one of the first players to experience the glory of battle and the thrill of WAR when the open beta phase begins!

    LIVE GAME HEAD START
    Begin your adventures in the Age of Reckoning before the raw recruits arrive!

  • Defintely sucks, just means i’ll probably be giving Age of Conan a serious look if it releases on time. Though that won’t prevent me from playing WAR when it’s released too 😉

  • lol, you know, i came back here to post just what you posted in 17…. i mean i know they responded to the “Is this a april fools joke?” But… if you’re trying to prank folks you don’t show your hand. We’ll know with 100% certainty by April 2nd i’d think 😉

  • I have my pre-order in with Gamestop (did it just for the pre-order bonus codes) but I’m considering going with Amazon. They usually ship several days ahead of their estimated date and get things to me really early. I believe their major warehouse in SoCal is no more than 30 min away.

  • The things is… I don’t want transparency. I don’t think the problem is that we must blindly accept that the game must be delayed. The problem is that they offered any sort of release projection to begin with.

    As Snafzq pointed out, the public release speculation and now the delay might help them to sell pre-orders for the sake of beta access. But it doesn’t help their marketing.

    The only justification I can imagine for publicizing release projections is to inform your investors if you’re a publicly traded company, like EA. But even that seems a stretch, since book publishers get along fine without releasing those details to investors, and investors could be held to NDAs.

    I’m just trying to explain why I don’t think “they need to be much more forthcoming”… that, instead, they need to be less forthcoming and keep internal estimates to themselves.

  • They can keep their release dates top secret and their projections and estimates a mystery. What I want them to be forthcoming on is the information about the game. I want to know more about the features, the mechanics, the balance, the details. They put us into starvation mode a few months ago and then threw us a dozen bones. Now we’re in a 6-8 month delay. If the hype is going to survive they’re going to have to be more forthcoming.

  • Interesting information regarding the Pre-order codes from Amazon.com’s pre-order:

    Beta Access code: Expires:June 10, 2008

    So, will open beta be starting before June 10th? Or will they be extending the expiration of the codes?

  • Seems the September release dates announced by some game shops last week were correct despite Mark Jacobs’ passionate denying.
    Seems there is Stealth despite Paul Barnett’s denying.

    From now on I’m skipping all that Paul Barnett video blog s**t and all Mark Jacobs’ happy shiny interviews since it is one big hype generating lie.

  • I dont see Wrath of the Lich King as anything to write home about. It’s just an expansion that will force everyone to start the whole treadmill and item-acquisition games all over. I would gladly dump WoW for Warhammer, no matter when it came out. But, it’s also unlikely that I’ll buy the Lick King expansion in any case.

    And you know, things can be going well without being completed. MMOs are convoluted beasts unlike any other. Making one right takes time. Making one wrong is all too easy. I fully support their willingness to listen to feedback and take the time to make changes so that the end product is better. Quality over speed.

  • I just found this on EBGames.com:

    Release date: 10/14/08

    Collector’s Edition contains:

    1) An exclusive Games Workshop miniature of the Greenskin leaders GRUMLOK and GAZBAG (Assembly and painting required)
    WARHAMMER ONLINE: PRELUDE TO WAR, a 128-page hardbound, original graphic novel
    2) THE ART OF WARHAMMER ONLINE, a 224-page hardbound collection of original game art
    3) Bonus In-Game Item – THE LIBRAMS OF INSIGHT, a special use XP-gain modifier
    4) Bonus Quests – Twelve (12) exciting in-game quests for further adventures on the frontlines
    5) Bonus Quest Rewards – Twelve (12) in-game items to aid you on your journeys
    6) Bonus Character Titles – Twelve (12) titles to show off your exploits to the world
    7) Bonus Character Customization Options – Twelve (12) unique character heads

    ** ONLY 60,000 COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN NORTH AMERICA! **

    Uh, are there really only going to be 60,000 CEs? Or is that just EBGames trying to get everyone to hurry up and pre-order? Anyone know?

  • I think there are only going to be 60,000 CE’s. That’s what I’ve heard at least. Definitely time to Pre-order.