James Nichols posted an update over on the Warhammer Herald this afternoon about the closure of the Warhammer Online beta on Wednesday, October 10th. Don't let this bring you down though; they're taking a few months to do heavy internal testing, as well as implementation of all kinds of cool stuff, with beta expected to begin anew in December.
James Nichols wrote:
Greetings all!
Recently, all WAR Beta participants received a letter stating our plan to end this phase of the closed beta test this Wednesday, October 10th. We periodically close Beta, our last closure being in March of this year, to focus on major improvements and polish. The next phase of Beta will reopen in early December with plenty of new and improved content, art and systems for our beta-testers.
We are very proud to have reached this point in development. Beta has been going very well and the testing community is extremely active. Excitement around the game continues to grow and the team is looking forward to enhancing many features already in the game as well as continuing to add new features to an already great game.
Based on player feedback, our own observations and our current schedule, we have set the following major development goals:
- Improve open field skirmishes and battlefield objectives with major enhancements.
- Provide players with even more options to customize their character both through their abilities and visual appearance.
- Continue to enhance Public Quests and the PQ System.
- Prepare the elves for their release into the world!
When the beta reopens, we look forward to welcoming back all of our current testers, as well as many new faces. Shortly after re-opening the doors, we will be inviting the first wave of guilds into the beta to really get things rolling.
Thank you!
- The Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Team
If you're looking to join in on a discussion about this, the folks over at Warhammer Alliance have a forum thread going on the topic.
Comments
Point 1 and 3 were supposed to be the main sellingpoints of the game werent they? So yeah, better get those right. Besides pushing the release and WotLK comming out on time is going to increase sales anyway.
I totally agree
I personally don't care how long it takes, just get it right.
I understand that periodically closing down external testing is a necessary evil for development purposes, to do it at this point in time seems very odd. I have really high doubts that this game will see a Quarter 2008 release at this point. I hope I'm wrong...