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MJ Speaks
Pheace
Member Posts: 2,408
[quote]Folks,
Well, the big day is here as this morning saw some major announcements hit the newswire. I’ll now go into some detail regarding the press release as well as make some other announcements here. I’ll also give some color to the stuff that has been swirling around here lately:
1) Our launch date of September 18th is indeed official. Last week I had said that this week’s news wasn’t going to cover the release date but some things came together just a wee bit faster than we expected (and how surprising is that?). Plus, with the retailers announcing the date (though some did put in the wrong date), we felt that we owed it to the community to announce our release date a little earlier than planned. Coordinating all the partners, retailers, etc., is as usual, *interesting* so we made the decision to announce the date today. As always, that date is still dependent on the remainder of beta going well, but as of this morning we are still on track for the 18th. As to why it’s on a Thursday, in order to ensure a simultaneous launch in North America and Europe and Oceania, we determined that Thursday was the optimal day and date. Coordinating a simultaneous launch in North America and Europe alone is quite challenging and because we did not want our European customers to have to wait even a few days longer than those in North America, we chose Thursday as the best possible day of the week to launch. With a launch on the 18th, WAR’s development time will still rank as one of the shortest of any major North American and European MMORPGs to date. I am amazingly proud of our team’s effort and I hope, in about a month, you’ll agree that WAR is a great MMORPG.
2) As to the subscription pricing, this subject has been debated continually since we announced the development of WAR. We have been very upfront with the community about our willingness to charge more than what is the current “established” MMO subscription rate, just as we did when we launched DAoC. We have seen lots of polls, heard lots of comments and after much thought and discussion, we decided to keep prices on the same level with the competition. We know that the vast majority of the community will be happy with this decision so we’re happy to be able to do this for our players.
3) Regarding the pre-order, Collector’s Edition and the Standard Edition, I’m pleased to announce that we will be holding a special “Preview Weekend” in addition to the normal Open Beta. Those people who pre-ordered the CE will be given priority entrance into the PW. You will need to download the client (of course) from one of several download options, none of which will require any additional payment of any kind. Once the CE buyers have had their chance to register and download the client, we will allow our Closed Beta testers into the PW as well. We would like to have around 100K people load testing and playing the game so depending on how many CE purchasers sign up for this, we will invite other people into the PW as well.
4) Regarding the pre-order, Collector’s Edition and the Standard Edition, we are extending the Head Start for the pre-order CE (not the SE) buyers by at least an additional day as an added thank you for buying our CE. Just as with the PW, no additional fee will be required to play in our Head Start.
5) Regarding the pre-order, Collector’s Edition and the Standard Edition, we are pleased to announce that we will also be inviting our pre-order CE buyers into our Closed Beta test starting next week. There will still be some hardware spec requirements (but they are much lower than our current requirements) since we are still in Closed Beta but we expect that the vast majority of our PO CE buyers will meet the lowered requirements. We gotten a lot of feedback from the community on this point over the last few weeks asking for this and we are now going to make it happen.
6) Regarding the start of OB, we are still working out all the details and when we are 100% locked into a date, we will be happy to confirm it unequivocally. As the history of MMOs has shown, a bad OB can hurt both the long-term and the short-term the success of a game just as surely as a great OB can help the game succeed and we need to make sure that we are ready for OB on the day it begins.
7) Regarding the NDA lift, we hope to lift the NDA next week, one month before launch. I wish I could lift it right now but as I’ve said elsewhere, we need to take care of a three issues before the NDA is lifted. One has already been taken care of and I hope that by the end of next week, the other two will be taken care of as well. Once we lift the NDA I’ll go into more detail as to what the issues were and why I wanted to hold things up. The remaining two issues are not earth-shattering by any means but when I explain things, I hope you’ll understand why I wanted to wait another week.
So, that’s it for today’s announcements. We will have more over the remaining weeks before launch but I believe that all of these announcements are both great news for the community and well in keeping with our long-standing approach of talking with and getting feedback from the community. Whether it is the longer HS, the extra PW or the subscription pricing, we have shown that we are responsive to the needs/desires of our community and will act accordingly.
I hope that these announcements both fulfill my promise of major news this week as well as news that was going to make the entire community very happy. This message is chock full of more positive things that almost any I have been able to deliver about WAR since we signed the deal for Warhammer three years ago.
I also hope that these announcements, taken along with the previews that we have been receiving, show the community that WAR is both coming and coming along nicely.
Mark
[/quote]
Comments
nice find
holy shi*t that just made my day!
Meh, my home forum, hard to miss ^^
I'm so excited about WAR that I'm completely speechless.
Something I've been curious about and I've noticed has been left out of every major announcement for the last year or two is what they are doing with the Veteran Newsletter Subscribers. I'm one of those people who signed up early for both the newsletter and the beta, and have checked my account nearly every day since it was created, but I've still been left out of every step in the process. Do Veteran Newsletter Subscribers still get some kind of special beta access, or was all of my waiting in vain?
Far as i can tell "vain".
There's been a fw posts in the last few days on the forum as well and he hasn't responded to any of it
Ok, anyone know how and if EU CE Pre-Order people take advantage of these?
We still cannot enter our OB codes.
Quoted the only part that most people are going to read in this before squealing haha.
Even though the 15th -- when we can download the OB clients (not necessarily when it starts) -- is next Friday, it's still a nice little thing to do for the CE buyers.
Someone asked, no answer yet.
I'd assume this is for the US though.
Great news for CE buyers, Good news for SE buyers, and bad news for no one!!! *Stamp of Approval*
"Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth." Ayn Rand
Ok, anyone know how and if EU CE Pre-Order people take advantage of these?
We still cannot enter our OB codes.
Well no one can enter any codes besides the OB code that I got with my CE pre-order. Of course I'm talking just for the North American release. I don't know what GOA intends to do about OB, but hopefully you will be able to participate as well.
Very nice, thanks for the info.
Can you link the source? I assume its on Warhammer Alliance forums somewhere..
EDIT: Found it vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/108139367/p1/
And they have oceanic based servers to boot! Woot! Definitely thumbs up.
Now i just want to know which day us CE preorders are going to get into closed beta.
yup
Does anyone have a clue as to what the System Req. will be for the CE PO Closed beta access...?
My specs are as follows...
Pent 4, 2.53
1.25 GB RAM
Radeon X1300
I know this is sufficent to run it upon release, but will it be ok for the CB?
To answer my own question about the EU.. Mythic are in discussion with GOA.
So these announcements are not yet guaranteed for Europe.
Kick ass! With NDA lift soon, OB will be close also!
Currently restarting World of Warcraft
I believe the intention was that veteran newsletter subscriber, the attribute on your beta application, would be another criteria used for consideration on selecting beta admission during the close beta phases. However, depending on the system specs you showed in the dxdiag file, it may not have made a difference -- or -- it could be just an unlucky "luck of the draw" scenario. I don't think that attribute will be used for anything upon release, as new accounts will be made outside of the beta system.
No one currently knows which client will be used for the CE Open Beta; whether it will be a beta or "gold" client. I would guess it is going to be a beta client.
I man giggled for the first time in my life...
it was scary.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
The decisions made by Mythic that you highlighted have very little if anything to do with Funcom.
They are simply things Funcom failed to do.
Mythic usually does things the right way, so I wouldn't give credit to Funcom (they don't deserve it).
STOP WHINING!
yeah