AN ETA on a Functioning game?

[Abriael]

They haven't been able to give a defined date since it is a range. The only thing we can guess for sure is that the real game will be released in the summer...

No. We can't. Unless where you live April is "summer".

August is the conservative estimate, I hope. I'd say late June or July once debugging is done.

Actually, August is way out of the roadmap. Some people just love to be overly negative (and some are just trolls).

The roadmap is quite clear, and involves a clearly indicated best case and a worst case scenario.

Best case scenario is mid april, worst case scenario is end of june.

Anyone advocating a release beyond that is just being negative for the sake of negativity or intentionally misinformative.

[inrainbows]

No. We can't. Unless where you live April is "summer".



Actually, August is way out of the roadmap. Some people just love to be overly negative (and some are just trolls).

The roadmap is quite clear, and involves a clearly indicated best case and a worst case scenario.

Best case scenario is mid april, worst case scenario is end of june.

Anyone advocating a release beyond that is just being negative for the sake of negativity or intentionally misinformative.

It won't release straight after beta. I wouldn't be surprised if it's 1-2 months after open beta ends so they make sure the servers & marketing are in order.

July-August isn't unreasonable.

[Molly_Millions]

It won't release straight after beta. I wouldn't be surprised if it's 1-2 months after open beta ends so they make sure the servers & marketing are in order.

July-August isn't unreasonable.

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.)

[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...

[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.

[Abriael]

It won't release straight after beta. I wouldn't be surprised if it's 1-2 months after open beta ends so they make sure the servers & marketing are in order.

July-August isn't unreasonable.

Actually yes. It's unreasonable, and illogical.

1: Games normally go straight from open beta to release, with no or very little downtime.
2: they clearly indicated all the downtimes for each phase, it's illogical to think that they just "forgot" to indicate the alleged one after open beta.
3: the roadmap very clearly indicates the possibility of an early access after open beta. Early access is, by all mean and purpose, release for what we all are concerned.

[Molly_Millions]

Actually yes. It's unreasonable, and illogical.

1: Games normally go straight from open beta to release, with no or very little downtime.
2: they clearly indicated all the downtimes for each phase, it's illogical to think that they just "forgot" to indicate the alleged one after open beta.
3: the roadmap very clearly indicates the possibility of an early access after open beta. Early access is, by all mean and purpose, release for what we all are concerned.

Holy crap, a logical response on the lodestone! You sir, deserve a toast.