And it’s not going to be another delay!!
In the article over at mmorpg.com Mark Jacobs revealed that part 1 of the big news was the name change and tomorrow part 2 will bring THREE announcements. Over at the vault Mark had this to say:
Folks,
Well, interesting speculation as to why and it really is as simple as EA continuing to reinvent itself. If you look at both the newly acquired studios (BioWare, Pandemic) notice that there is no EA before their name like there was ours. Having separate brand identities has been proven to be a winning formula in such diverse companies as Estee Lauder, Disney and GE. This is a long-standing wish of mine and speaking for everyone at Mythic, it’s a great thing for all concerned. I really couldn’t be happier that this has happened. I didn’t mind being EA Mythic but ah, Mythic Entertainment sounds great, I love our new logo and the timing is wonderful.
As to the other stuff that is going to be announced tomorrow, I can promise you one thing, we are not announcing a delay.
Mark
Perhaps an official release date? Maybe – personally I doubt it. Anyone care to venture a guess as to what these three announcements will be? My guesses are…
- Open Beta Date
- Head-start info
- Okay, I guess a release date is possible.
Tomorrow is going to be a VERY interesting day.
*chews finger stumps* I wonder whether its actually possible that they might bring the release date closer…is that possible? I think its most likely they will be at least announcing the open beta date.
I think it’ll be release date.
No open beta, I read some place that they will not open beta this game.
My money is on a release date.
@Delthis
There is an open beta, you get a key for it if you order the Collectors Edition.
I am betting it will be news about the guild beta, open beta, and something else. I highly doubt it will be a release date. If it is it will probably be a month, not a day.
Release date seems likely due to his emphasis on it not being another delay.
Push back of release date…
I Keed…I really hope I kid.
[…] Just saw this on Keen and Graev’s blog. […]
Here’s hoping for an open beta announcement. Its all I really want at this point in time.
All classes in guild beta! Bah, who knows, I’m done speculating, I just want the news.
My guess is guild beta and perhaps the Open beta date but as long as it is not another delay I am happy lol
Tome of Knowledge will include Encyclopedia Britannia free of charge. Wood Elves, Slann, Tomb Kings and Vampires will form a traveling circus in-game featuring the bearded skeleton lady, two headed lizard man, vampire’s hall of mirror and wood elf trapeze. Wise, old Skaven warrior and four teenage ninja Chaos Dwarves will make their home in the sewers of Altdorf, fight crime and eat pizza. I got this.
Release date, open beta and new changes has my money.
Mythic have commented that it won’t be dates already so that is ruled out.
Damn! I’ll be traveling all night and my laptop is out of commision 🙁 Going to be a long weekend away from news… guess I’ll have to figure something out.
Release date perhaps
Should be interesting to point out that Amazon.com has a release date for the Warhammer Online: CE set as Sept. 30, 2008. Mistake? Possibly, we’ll see.
Well it out…and it certainly wasn’t good news…
Well his second part is up at MMORPG 🙂
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/239/feature/2041
I think they are going to get a lot of flak from the fans, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt that it will be a better game.
Here are big but sad news:
1) “MMORPG.com has learned that a decision has been made to reduce the number of Capital Cities at launch from six down to two. Altdorf (Empire) and Inevitable City (Chaos) will stand at launch as the Capitals not only of their race, but of their faction as well.”
2) “The four careers that are going [removed / not at release] may surprise players (and even includes one of Marks personal favorites). The list is as follows:
Choppa (Greenskin)
Hammerer (Dwarf)
Blackguard (Dark Elf)
Knight of the Blazing Sun (Empire)
This means the removal of two tanks and two melee DPS classes.”
Ah well… Better have 2 polished great cites and 20 fun classes than 6 unfinished cities and 24 unbalanced classes aye?.
Yeah Fugazi don’t know what to think about it. I’m curious what Keen will say about these news.
And for the last sentence I’m not sure. I’d rather have 6 fun cities and 24 balanced carrers.
I have it on good authority that Keen has been happy with what he has seen in beta.
“I speak highly of WAR based on what I’ve seen in hands-on demos and officially released information. I’ve been a fan of Mythic’s development for many years. I’ll be the first to call a spade a spade if it turns out different.”
(Actual quote)
My quote
“But, believing WAR or any other MMO will release content complete and all features and mechanics in place, is foolhardy.”
And what do we have here? OH NOES!!@!@
Cutting stuff already.
Do we see any spades yet? Or will this be turned around into GOOD news?
@Openedge1: I’m not in the beta and I do not consider this good news.
@Keen
Ok, sorry about that. I thought your feelings on how well WAR was coming along was based on first hand data.
My bad.
And as to this news. We could paint this in a good light. They learned their lesson from AoC, and will be pulling as much as possible to not have any problems?
Well the news that we can take from this is.
1. They are commited to a Q3 2008 launch date.
2. They are under pressure to get the game out sooner rather than later, even if it means content will have to be patched in at a later date.
Whether that is pressure from external (fans, marketplace, WoTLK pending release) or internal (upper management, EA pushing them to launch) is up in the air.
Also now I am interested in how they plan to balance RvR @ launch with only 1 capital city on each side. Do points earned in the Greenskin/Dwarf and Elf/Dark Elf RvR scenarios and battlefield objectives count toward the Empire/Chaos battlefront?
Ouch. That’s . . . disappointing. I love how mark implied it was good news. Double ouch.
I can’t read the article (site is blocked by my work, like just about every gaming site on the fricking planet) — does he say whether that stuff will be added post-release, or is it just gone?
That’s a major loss of content. Loss of the capital cities is disappointing from an immersion sense, but loss of 4 classes is, in my opinion, fairly devastating. It’s not too surprising though, as they’d already gone on record as saying they won’t hold up the game for the missing classes.
If the choice is delay the game for 3 months and compete head-to-head with WotLK, or polish up what they have and release on time (sort of, you know what I mean) I think the choice is pretty clear.
However, I really hope they don’t follow Funcom’s example and release the game without promised features (which they’re now doing) and then drag their feet getting those features in post-release (time will tell).
Mythic is really going to have to prove themselves now.
I have posted my thoughts on the news in a new blog entry. Feel free to discuss it there. Needless to say this is horrible news.
Good news is they’ll release the game polished and ready.
Bad news is that they’ll have to cut some good stuff to get there.
I wish it was just delayed.