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Beta Test Estimates
CDCosta
Member Posts: 90
I was bored, and thought i'd do some research and try and find an estimate of when Beta will be released.
Facts:
-FFXIV devs want a longer beta then FFXI which was 3-4 months. (So lets say 4-6 months beta)
Source: 
-In september, SE put a Job posting up for a GM with prefrence knowledge of FFXI (this might mean they are getting ready for in house alpha tests)
Source: http://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/jobs/
-We saw an Alpha test of a 40-50% done game at Gamescon which featured the 'Guildleaves' system. The devs went on to say they want one more playable test of the 'Armoury' system.
Source: N/A
-There is a world-wide & cross-platform release slated for 2010. (Latest would be December ofcourse)
Source: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/
-The FF series usually launches a game a year apart, but recently they've been getting closer, like the launch of FFXI in NA for PC, and FFX-2 just a month after for PS2. And FF12 & Crisis Core launched in Japan just 5 months apart.
Source: http://www.finalfantasyworld.co.uk/release_dates.php
-FF13 is slated to also launch in 2010 rumored for March or a Spring launch.
Source: N/A
(Sorry for some N/A sources, there real, trust me)
*We know that there will be a Beta between October 2009 - December 2010.
*If there is at least a 4 month Beta, that means it must start August 2010 at the latest to be finished by December.
*If the launch in December, it will be before xmas, and most likely early December.
*The beta will most likely not be effected by FF13 release, and the launch will most likely launch at least a month after it.
*There is usually at least a few weeks time gap between end of Beta to launch. This means, even at a 4 month beta, it will most likely start at the latest in July 2010.
*FF14 is said to be about 50% done, and is being developed in each language for both PC & PS3 at the same time and will be launched at the same time. This means there will most likely be a bigger gap from end of beta to launch day due to shipping, arrangments, and making sure the complexety of the cross platform/cross region launch will be smooth.
*The devs should be entering a heavy in-house testing soon with recent job ads for GMs, this means they are close to Beta, but still a short while from it. (I would estimate 2 months from october 2009)
BEST CASE SENARIO
- The devs are more ready then they are telling us, and Alpha is short, we see a late November/early December 2009 Beta.
WORST CASE SENARIO
- Alpha starts late, there are lots of problems/complications, FF13 launch and development gets in the way and we see a July/early August 2010 Beta.
Comments
Ya i would not buy into the longer beta,the head cheese himself,said the game could come out as early as December,it depends on how fast things move along for them.
One thing about Square is that they make VERY few mistakes,i would bet they could release the product with no beta and it would probably be better than games like Aion that have been running for a year now lol.
My gut feeling is that if the head CEO hints at December ,you can bet January at the latest.Also there it is a fact that they have already put in place an inside test team,so IMO this game is ready to go,other than perhaps the SIZE of the world.They probably need more time to finish the whole world,but everything else like combat,coding,mechanics, UI ,i would say are probably already done.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Anyone who played FFXI since "japanese" retail can tell you one fact.
FFXI was very empty.
And you will see the same thing for FFXIV. It took 1 year for RoZ to release and then another year for CoP to release then another year for ToAU and 1 and half year for WOTG. To evolve into the current FFXI.
none
What the hell does this have to do with anything? Troll.
Anyone who played from U.S. release (which only had RoZ expansion) can tell you one fact.
You don't know what you are talking about.
I played for the first two years it was out in U.S. and it was not empty at all. The only problem I had with FFXI was the terrible economy... which will hopefully be fixed for FFXIV.
He does have a point, imagine your experience without Khazam etc, without the upper tier city missions, etc. FFXI's expansions especially zilart added a lot of stuff in the game, and they have said that the new world will be smaller than Vanadiel at release which means it won't feel as empty, but there won't be as much to do either.
I don't think this is really a problem personally, because I am confident they will support it with expansions later and I prefer quality content added with paid for expansions over free but buggy and shallow content added in patches.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
What the hell does this have to do with anything? Troll.
I think he meant content wise, not population.
I played the US release and it was booming. Then after hanging around with a few of the japanese players I learned the game was a tad bit dull before the US release.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
What the hell does this have to do with anything? Troll.
I think he meant content wise, not population.
I played the US release and it was booming. Then after hanging around with a few of the japanese players I learned the game was a tad bit dull before the US release.
Still.
What does that have to do with Beta? This isnt about content, it's about when beta might be released.
Not sure what you mean by empty?Population wise ,the game was insane in opening months.
There was groups forming on a whim ANYWHERE in Tahrongi or Saruta,Bubu there was not this one place to group and that was solo >>>dunes>>>jueno.It was so insane i could literally get a group in 2 minutes anywhere anytime,it was actually chaotic.
On Garuda i was in an all Taru guild,with a few exceptions and we had 120+,and i never even interact much with the LS at all,i was so busy with friends and other people.To give an example,you would see 3-5 groups in Tahrongi canyon,i have not seen a real 6 player group there in years.In Maze of Shakrami there was 2-4 parties and it only could handle 2.
I remember the game being so busy some of my parties tripped far across to the worm tunnel over by Bastock,heck we didn't even know how to get there lol,we just heard about it and said why not.
One thing the game did have a shortage of was WHM,i guess because anything other than taru had so little mp it was hard at low levels ,and nobody had gear back then.also many people wanted to be DPS machines and early soloing a WHM as a taru was real hard,like i said there was no pots or great gear going around in the early days.
The game was amazing great fun,because grouping was never a problem and nobody knew anything ,it was one great adventure to discover everything,nobody had the internet to tell them answers yet,not unless they got answers from JPN sites.
Crap gear ,tough fights,tons of players all around you ,some running with trains of Yagudo chasing them ROFLMAO,it was utterly great FUN.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Not sure what you mean by empty?Population wise ,the game was insane in opening months.
There was groups forming on a whim ANYWHERE in Tahrongi or Saruta,Bubu there was not this one place to group and that was solo >>>dunes>>>jueno.It was so insane i could literally get a group in 2 minutes anywhere anytime,it was actually chaotic.
On Garuda i was in an all Taru guild,with a few exceptions and we had 120+,and i never even interact much with the LS at all,i was so busy with friends and other people.To give an example,you would see 3-5 groups in Tahrongi canyon,i have not seen a real 6 player group there in years.In Maze of Shakrami there was 2-4 parties and it only could handle 2.
I remember the game being so busy some of my parties tripped far across to the worm tunnel over by Bastock,heck we didn't even know how to get there lol,we just heard about it and said why not.
One thing the game did have a shortage of was WHM,i guess because anything other than taru had so little mp it was hard at low levels ,and nobody had gear back then.also many people wanted to be DPS machines and early soloing a WHM as a taru was real hard,like i said there was no pots or great gear going around in the early days.
The game was amazing great fun,because grouping was never a problem and nobody knew anything ,it was one great adventure to discover everything,nobody had the internet to tell them answers yet,not unless they got answers from JPN sites.
Crap gear ,tough fights,tons of players all around you ,some running with trains of Yagudo chasing them ROFLMAO,it was utterly great FUN.
You mean the english retail or the japanese one? The difference is quite big.
Of course FFXI was large when english version came out- it had a year or two of a headstart to create content and fix balance issues. It's not the case with XIV, with its international release and all.
Content wise yes FFXI pre-RoZ was very empty. Cap was 60 so all there was to do was level to 60 and get your AF. In case you never noticed FFXI was never about a rush to endgame like every other MMO.
Personally I hope FFXIV is the same way at launch. This rush to cap is a plague in the MMO genre. If they can make leveling fun and interesting people will not rush through it like a race. Especially if they know end-game is lacking. I can find lots of things to do in a game to tide me over until SE releases good end-game content, like I know they can and will do.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
^ As shitty as those quests to raise level caps were(forgot name), I think their a great Idea to hault people from just leveling straight to cap.
I think it was a 50/50 good and bad what SE did but I also want to add it was probably planned out perfectly that way. With the initial launch in Japan, most of the debugging and instancing and exp'ing was limited to the JP-side and that was probably the group least likely to abandon the game and be patient for the new upcoming expansions and features. With news of level cap raises, AF armor and missions, it was probably enough to keep their base audience satisfied. The game was pretty centered on exp'ing primarily with an economy that was not even booming. But there's nothing wrong with the "let's start small and go big after" approach either. Any JP's that left because they thought it was boring probably joined back into playing when exp caps were raised, AF introduced and ROZ was on the horizon and used as eye candy to entice.
The NA's experienced a launch dramatically different and, in fairness, the launch on the PC system vs console were also completely different experiences felt by everyone. For my 2-cents, I'd also toss in that FF14, unlike FF11, has the market working against them this time. Keep in mind when FF11 came out there was no WoW nor was the mmo market as expansive. FF14 is going to compete against WoW, Aion, EvE, WAR, LoTR, Fallen Earth and SW:TOR to name a few of the "hyped" and/or heavy-hitter games with Star Wars the only one to release next year. So given SE is run by bean-counters and guys in suits, we can assume that they WILL gamble on releasing it next year and possibly for the Christmas crowd to increase their odds of sales; it just makes sense. Its the reason why digital cameras and camcorders companies release their new models 2-3 months before graduation time: they sell more of them faster that way and can sell their older models at full price around the Christmas buying period.
Regardless of how a game is designed or built, its run by a business for-profit and we can expect them to make decisions that maximize profit and limit (hopefully) customer irritation. If SE somehow fails to get this game out by the 4th quarter of next year, they'll probably find out that the launch won't have as many ppl as hoped for. On the brighter side for them, the one claim they CAN make no other mmo can is they own the Japanese market lol! So they have one up on other games.
Here this should make some of you guys happy reading this thread I will also make a new thread for people to see this info if they haven't already!
http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2009/09/28/game-watch-interviews-tanaka-and-komoto-at-tgs/
The Beta
Can you believe it? GAME Watch got actual information about beta testing! The first round of beta testing will be done with a relatively small group and be conducted worldwide. It won’t be a continuously running beta test but broken down into small 3 or 4 hour tests held at different times. They plan on doing very detailed testing on FFXIV so users will see how the game develops over time. At the beginning, tests will only be conducted with the Windows version. From the initial 3 or 4 hour tests they will expand to daily or weekly beta tests that run for 24 hours a day. After that comes stress tests which will require a lot of people. Tanaka says it could start with 10 thousand people and go up from there to 20, 40, and 80 thousand people. Finally, there will be a free open beta. Originally he thought it would take half a year to go from a development build to the open beta, but he now thinks it will be shorter than that. The interviewer guesses at a summer release based on that and Tanaka says it all depends on the feedback they get from players during the beta testing. It doesn’t sound like the development build he is referring to is the same demo shown at gamescom. He says whether or not a development build is made by year’s end will depend on the developers.
The interview ends with Tanaka saying things will be different from how FFXI started because they will take action against RMT from the very beginning this time around. People will also be able to use the security tokens and one time passwords. Komoto says visitors to gamescom were able to try out the game first but for people in Japan to please be patient because it will be awhile longer before they will have a chance to play it. Tanaka laughs and says he’ll be lighting a fire under the bums of all the developers.