AN ETA on a Functioning game?

[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.