Warhammer Online Release Date Speculation

July 31, 2008 – 2:15 pm

It’s the sensation that’s sweeping the nation! I’m not even going to play the guessing game on the actual date of NDA liftage, open beta, or release because 1) I’m under the NDA; and 2) I think it’s pointless. It will happen regardless of when the fans predict or desire, and even though it might be a fun game to play in waiting, I’m just all “meh” about it. Easy for me to say, right? Well, judge that once the NDA drops and you read all my impressions…

I do however want to offer up some hypotheses as to why Gamestop and many others have been releasing seemingly random and conflicting release schedules.

Hypothesis 1 - We’re pulling it out of our …

Gamestop and others don’t actually have official confirmation from Mythic and are simply trolling the community for link-bait. Obviously, Gamestop still has some CE preorders left and wants to burn through them before open beta. Also, they’ll continue to sell the non preorder edition after release and this will help them rank highly in the search engines.

Hypothesis 2 - Haha, fooled you!

Mythic has been giving out random dates to each of the online resellers to create confusion and hype since there’s really nothing else to talk about that isn’t negative (lack of a timely newsletter and recent cuts). The major events are over aren’t they (E3 and ComiCon)? The WAR train must go on…

Hypothesis 3 - Smoke, mirrors, and sleight of hand.

Mythic has been using these sites to experiment with how the community would react to official information of this nature. If the reaction is positive, they’ll confirm it and try stick to plan. If the reaction is negative, they can just play the “it’s unofficial, duh” card and rework their plan.

The fact that there is currently major confusion over how the previously thought-to-be guaranteed open beta invites are being dispersed through the different game versions, as well as the actual length of the open beta, is actually a bit of a PR nightmare for Mythic imho. I realize they’re all pretty busy people but someone should clear the air on this ASAP, otherwise they’re going to have a lot of PO’d fans on their hands. The amount of emotional control a guy like Mark Jacobs has over so many people is actually quite chilling!

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Post tags: beta, EA Mythic, Warhammer Online

17 Responses to “Warhammer Online Release Date Speculation”
At this point I think Gamestop is pretty accurate. There seems to be an innate conflict with Publishers and retailers in the MMO world. Publishers (including devs) like the flexibility to change dates up until the last moment. retailers don’t have that flexibility. So we have what is happening now. The customer loses.

By Werit on Jul 31, 2008
Hopefully the newsletter clears this all up…now if it would just arrive so I can stop checking my email every 20 minutes…

By Centuri on Jul 31, 2008
Centuri: Newsletter was delayed and will not be out until early next week

http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=169

By Werit on Jul 31, 2008
It was never said that CE would be the only way to get into Open Beta, only that they would have a guaranteed spot. I don’t see what people on the forums are going on about.

@Centuri: the Herald recently announced that the newsletter would be coming out “early next week”.

By Regis on Jul 31, 2008
The US Herald has been updated, along with some links for July, it has a note that the Newsletter will be out early next week. Just thought I’d save you all that constant checking.

By Hellebron on Jul 31, 2008
Jumping in on the bandwagon is fun, epecially when you make fun of all the people that have all these conspiracy theories on all of it.

As for the release date, those stores have more information than you know, as you can’t just get a product in whenever..you have to be able to plan for quantity, shelf space, height requirements…as well as plan in-store marketing as well as web marketing. This coming from an ex-EBGames employee and some one now in the retail business for “other” companies

By Brotik on Jul 31, 2008
@Regis - You’re totally right, but that’s some pretty sneaky marketing on their part if this comes to be… They list all these pre-order CE exclusives and mention guaranteed open beta access in the same breath, so you can’t blame people for feeling this way imho.

By Snafzg on Jul 31, 2008
Gamestop is putting its feelers out and hyping their company. I won’t buy from them ever again. I am making up tee shirts and Stop Gamestop signs. If it is Mythic…. Well, I’ll just camcel my CE and that will teach them LOL… Right like either one of those companies cares which one we buy as long as we pay up in the end. They know we will pay because we are addicted to WAR.

By Scarybooster on Jul 31, 2008
Consumer apathy strikes again!

By Snafzg on Jul 31, 2008
Official response:

http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/108083027/p1/?0

Clears up nothing having to do with dates.

By Werit on Jul 31, 2008
I got an email form Amazon today letting me know they were adjusting the release date on the CE I preordered, originally it was slated to be delivered 9/23, they adjusted it to 9/19 for some reason.

By Bill on Jul 31, 2008
amazon.com, ebgames.com, gamestop.com, gamespot.com, buy.com (price reduced to $46.99) all have 9/16 release dates.

newegg.com (sold out), bestbuy.com, circuitcity.com, gamespy.com all list 9/23 release dates.

The stars are aligning my friends.

By singlemalt on Jul 31, 2008
They could have been a little clearer on the open beta not being exclusive to the Collectors Edition, but other than that, it’s no big deal. Sounds like the headstart is longer for CE owners anyway, and CE can still be cancled and regular preorders can be ordered, so its all still good.

In fact, I may even order myself a regular edition and save the CE for ebay only, we’ll see.

By Knash on Jul 31, 2008
I just got the “arrive Sept 18″ letter from Amazon on both my pre-orders.

Hopin’ its true… classes start on the 22nd. Seeing the game shipping on the 23rd felt like the universe was laughing at me.

By Grimjakk on Jul 31, 2008
Actually, I bought the CE from EA Store and they won’t let me cancel my order. I tried a while back when I got a bit overexcited over certain something cuts.

By Snafzg on Aug 1, 2008
@Snafzg,

I had the same problem. I called customer support, opened a claim to cancel my order, and then I opened a dispute in paypal. Took 2 weeks, but I got my money back from them.

They have horrid customer service, horrid everything really, its a shame, as I think its even worth then blizzard.

One wonders if WAR has the potential, but will be ruined by the backend in the long run.

By JoshTrav on Aug 1, 2008
Hmmm, that’s brutal… Luckily for us, EA probably won’t have much to do with the actually running of WAR once it releases aside form the servers. I think EA will probably give Mythic a lot of leeway to do things their own way.

By Snafzg on Aug 1, 2008