I received a bit of good, or at the very least interesting, news this afternoon from Amazon.com regarding Warhammer’s new release date. I know that these dates are always “set in mud” but the way it was worded and the fact that Amazon is issuing this date as a correction to their recent September date gives me a grain of hope. Here’s what they sent me (the emphasis is my own):
“We have received new release date information related to your pre-ordered video game in the order you placed on March 27 2008 09:34 PDT (Order# *Removed*). The release date for the video game listed below has been changed by the publisher, and we want to provide you with a new delivery estimate based on the new release date:
“Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector’s Edition [DVD-ROM]” [DVD-ROM] Release date: 10/07/2008 Estimated arrival date: 10/10/2008 – 10/15/2008″
Maybe I’m reaching, or maybe this is a good sign!
As for beta starting in the summer, the following was released from VideoGamer.com:
“The open beta for upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will begin in “the summer”, the game’s European spokesperson has revealed to VideoGamer.com.”
Mark Jacobs has already cast a shadow of doubt on this information by telling the community not to believe anything unless it comes from Mythic directly. For what it’s worth, it’s at least another positive sign that maybe we won’t be stuck waiting until December to play.
Their “open” beta isn’t really an open beta, though, right? Still need an invite or a preorder?
Yep, their open beta is just a more relaxed closed beta. I’m expecting a special fileplanet offer, the pre-orders, the closed beta participants, and probably a lot more invites to all make up the open beta group.
More info surrounding the open beta in summer:
Summer can still mean 31st of July though :(((
>> Summer can still mean 31st of July though :(((
In Orlando, summer could mean the end of October. 🙁
Mythic has been making a great effort to discredit any sort of rumors about official dates, no matter what sort of hard, undeniable evidence is presented. I think they’re trying to give themselves room to push it back more. If they were to release an official date, then have to push it back, it’d be disastrous to their community. If they pretend like they never had an official date or never said one way or the other, they can throw up their hands and say “Well, we never said it was in Summer!”
Dirty, dirty…
It seems to me that even now, after ALL of their push backs, they still aren’t sure about their release.
Let’s not forget that Blizzard is the king of the slipped release date… and arguably the king of the polished game (whether or not you agree with their design decisions). Mythic and EA both have a lot riding on this- they want to get it right almost as badly as we want them to.
More information on the Amazon date:
Mark Jacobs: “Folks,
Release dates, as always, are set in mud. So, don’t take any date that you see from the retailers as a set date, until you hear it from us.
Mark”
MeanKeenLurikeen(me): “Maybe this is that type of mud that dries quickly and gets all hard like stone! ”
Mark Jacobs: “MeanKeenLurikeen,
We should both be so lucky.
Mark”
I went ahead and pre-ordered through Amazon (just the regular version). Maybe that means I’ll get to play and help in beta, but I wonder if I’ll still be excluded for having a blog. Or is beta access just for pre-orders of the collector’s edition? (too rich for my blood, despite the cool artbook)
If I was a community manager, I’d tell everyone the same thing… that no news means anything unless it comes from Mythic as a company. Even if the info was a leak by a Mythic employee, I’d still say that’s not solid news, because it didn’t come from the company.
I believe access to Open beta and the head start is for Collectors Edition only and they can not exclude you for having a blog. It’s open beta and you payed for the access.
Thanks. I went back and upgraded my pre-order to the CE. The artbook alone isn’t worth 30 bucks to me, but that plus 3-5 months of beta access is alright, I suppose (the comic seems cool, but it’s not something I would normally pay for).
So I guess I’ll send you a /tell when we’re in. 🙂
And while we’re on the subject of badass summer games… Sweet Flag says the Spore creature editor demo will be released sometime in July. I’m not sure where he read that, though.
I’m not sure if beta will be 3-5 months. I would really doubt it. But if the European spokesperson was at all accurate we can expect at least a decent sized beta. 🙂 Still a few months out from it regardless – ugh!
Spore looks awesome. I’ll keep my eyes open for the creature editor demo, thanks for the tip! 😀
Sadly, even if every word of the WAR release date info is 100% accurate we could be looking at a late August open beta start (still summer) with 5-6 weeks before launch. I was hopeful we might see a september release, but I suppose october isn’t that much further away.
No, it won’t start this summer. I’m sure of that, as they pulled back the release date by 6 months. That decision wasn’t for nothing, i expect the game to have major flaws both graphically and content vise, balance in pve and pvp.