So... Phase 4 and beyond, speculation ...

[ArkhamNative]

well seems like Early Access was correct, starts on 8/20. Some ppl have alrdy gotten a email about it. Here's a link posted from the beta forum.
http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5000a930.jpg

That looks like some announce day marketing images I saw that I couldn't find a day later. Even EB Game Australia (that image's source) has changed it on their store. I don't think it means 7 days for sure. (I'm OK with 7 days, just I don't think SE is making that claim.)

[JillyBean]

well seems like Early Access was correct, starts on 8/20. Some ppl have alrdy gotten a email about it. Here's a link posted from the beta forum.

http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5000a930.jpg

That looks like some announce day marketing images I saw that I couldn't find a day later. Even EB Game Australia (that image's source) has changed it on their store. I don't think it means 7 days for sure. (I'm OK with 7 days, just I don't think SE is making that claim.)

I heard about this at the beginning of pre-orders as well and it was posted up in the Beta forums. My understanding is that SE has removed all links/evidence of this 7-day early access and perhaps it wasn't supposed to be advertised this way to begin with.

However, I'd love to hear facts about what emails people have already received and exactly what they say. I have my pre-order code from Amazon but until we can register them, not much I can do with it. Plus I'm Legacy so won't actually even need to register it for early access?

/shrug

EDIT: By the way, do the dates given in regard to making application and registering Beta codes (if you haven't already) give anyone any different timeline ideas?
Lodestone announcement today: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/index.html