AN ETA on a Functioning game?

[Alerith]

Why not? 1.0 launched right after beta. It just depends on how they want to handle open beta. Do they want to treat is as an "open beta test" or "open beta" (as in a sneak for the general public.)

Beat me to it.

I remember the Open Beta 1.0 servers going down and the next day the actual game went live...but we all know how that song and dance went...

[Forgo]

When can we expect to see an actual release, of a fully functioning game with no "beta" excuse?

It makes me nervous to see so many people screaming Beta again..
It is a bad flash back of FFXIV..
"Oh it's beta, don't worry, it'll get better"

But I'm not seeing much, if any real info, regarding the actual time frame involved.
Even a rough estimate would be nice.
Just please, for the love of God, do not Rush it out again..
But when are we looking at?
Jan? Feb? Mar? Next December?
Anything? lol...

[inrainbows]

Why not? 1.0 launched right after beta. It just depends on how they want to handle open beta. Do they want to treat is as an "open beta test" or "open beta" (as in a sneak for the general public.)

And look how 1.0 turned out xD Hopefully SE have learned that setting a release date before beta has finished is a bad idea.

[Abriael]

And look how 1.0 turned out xD Hopefully SE have learned that setting a release date before beta has finished is a bad idea.

That has absolutely no relation with releasing a game right *after* beta. Which is what basically everyone does.

Advocating that there will (or should) be any sizable amount of time between the end of the open beta and release doesn't hold a shred of logic.

[inrainbows]

That has absolutely no relation with releasing a game right *after* beta. Which is what basically everyone does.

Advocating that there will (or should) be any sizable amount of time between the end of the open beta and release doesn't hold a shred of logic.

Yes it does. There is this thing called marketing. They will need a specific date to launch the game so the marketing can be effective. My point is if this is decided before beta ends that is a bad idea. (unless phase 4 is essentially a glorified demo)

And plenty of games have a reasonable time between beta and release. Guild Wars 2 beta finished July 22nd and the game launched August 28th.

[Abriael]

Yes it does. There is this thing called marketing. They will need a specific date to launch the game so the marketing can be effective. My point is if this is decided before beta ends that is a bad idea. (unless phase 4 is essentially a glorified demo)

You don't know much about "that thing called marketing", do you? The very basic notion of marketing (especially on fields like gaming) is to make it flexible. No game besides the smallest ones has a set in stone marketing plan based on a release date that cannot change, MMORPGs even less.

That besides the fact that developers don't go into betas completely blind. By how the first phases will fare they will have an increasingly precise idea of the final release date, and will be able to adjust their marketing plan accordingly.

And plenty of games have a reasonable time between beta and release. Guild Wars 2 beta finished July 22nd and the game launched August 28th.

That's a very small minority of games. For the vast majority of MMORPG, when it goes into open beta, it's pretty much ready for prime time and there are only some final tweaking and stress testing to be done.

And those few games you mention didn't have a clear roadmap that told their customers that after open beta, you'd get release or an early access at most. I'm not sure what part of this is so hard to understand, really.

Again, advocating that after open beta there will be or there should be a sizable downtime is illogical, and goes against all the facts we have. But some seem to love being misinformative, I noticed.

[inrainbows]

*sigh*

Sure a release date can change 6 months from release. When it comes to 1-2 months before release and advertisements are going to tv and press the last thing they want is a date change.

ARR already had a roadmap that changed. The current roadmap clearly states "However, given the nature of beta testing (during which we work closely with our customers to improve our products), there may be a need to adjust both the commencement date and the duration of the beta test." Yoshi has stated multiple times they don't want to be completely locked in to a schedule. This is why 1.0 failed. I really hope they take the time they need to make sure launch is successful.

And sure, anyone who has a differing opinion to yours is illogical and misinformative.

[Alerith]

Abriael and inrainbows, you need to quit arguing because in reality, you're both right.

Abriael is right in that there should be no significant downtime between the end of beta and the release of the game. Inrainbows is right because the length of the Beta can be adjusted which would put any release date, even were it the day after the beta ends, off schedule.

Yes, they should, and are, take as long as they need to get it right so it doesn't flop. No, there should be no significant downtime between the end of beta and release. Marketing and advertising is flexible enough to deal with any change we may foresee.

[Abriael]

*sigh*

Sure a release date can change 6 months from release. When it comes to 1-2 months before release and advertisements are going to tv and press the last thing they want is a date change.

You assume that they are going to put advertisement on TV and on press with a release date much before said release, which is most definitely not needed, nor sensical. Especially with MMORPGs, most heavy advertisement is done very shortly before release, AT release or AFTER release. Before then, if any advertisement is made, it can simply carry a "coming soon", as it did for other MMOs.

MMORPGs aren't like offline games that need to concentrate most of their sales in the release window. Quite the opposite, the more the initial influx of players is staggered, the better is for the developer.

ARR already had a roadmap that changed. The current roadmap clearly states "However, given the nature of beta testing (during which we work closely with our customers to improve our products), there may be a need to adjust both the commencement date and the duration of the beta test." Yoshi has stated multiple times they don't want to be completely locked in to a schedule. This is why 1.0 failed. I really hope they take the time they need to make sure launch is successful.

That is why they gave us a best case scenario and a worst case scenario. Assuming that they'll go past the worst case scenario just because is, again, completely illogical.

Until we have any firm evidence that the worst case scenario will be missed, the release window is between mid april and the end of june. Any other hypothesis is based on hot air. There's absolutely no reason to assume that they'll miss the dates they set on their own as the worst outcome.

It's illogical just like assuming that they'd leave a sizable amount of downtime between open beta and release when they indicated all the downtime in the roadmap, and there's none there.

And sure, anyone who has a differing opinion to yours is illogical and misinformative.

No. Anyone that purposely goes against *all* the data we've been given, without the slightest indication that the data is somehow wrong, is illogical and misinformative.

There's a difference.

And while I can appreciate wanting the team to take the necessary time for a successful release, hoping for them to go past the worst case scenario they indicated, with the mandatory negative impact on the game's hype and on the players' mood, regardless of the game's state (that they knew better than you when they wrote down the roadmap) is nonsensical and actually damaging.

At the moment, we can either trust the roadmap set by yoshida and the development team based on their knowledge of the state of the game, their system and their marketing plan (because you know, that kind of roadmap passes by marketing as well), or your fantasies based on your wishful thinking.

Guess who's most credible.

[xXHalloweenTrixXx]

I rather not have a specified date for release. Why? Because Open beta is when most players get their hands on the game, and I'm talking the people who never played Final Fantasy 14 before, those who hated FF14, and those who are bit iffy about FF14 to begin with or any mmorpg in general. If Open Beta comes and SE sees a ton of complaints and unhappy players, I would think the most sensible thing for SE to do is to not release the game immediately, much less put stress upon themselves with an exact date for it to be out.

So estimated dates are fine but having exact dates, I rather not. If the game isn't ready to be released it shouldn't be. I rather not a FF14 1.0 again.