Beta Feb 22

[ranked1]

Very limited 100-200 (my guess). Will ramp up to 10,000 in External. Does not sound like a Public.

High bandwidth is a must due to DLing game.

Don't hold your breath until External.

Q1 looks very doubtful - April probably.

[CosmicBlend]

According to Best Buy's database its expected in stores April 14th. That is subject to change though.

[Wullic]

Best Buy is never correct for media titles unless its a movie

[Navaron]

I'm not on the dev bandwagon, however, he did sound anxious about the Q1 deadline. BUT he didn't retract it, which means that someone still think they can get it out on time, as of now.

[Arshune]

I wouldn't worry about them meeting the release date too much, the game is feature complete according to SJ. That means that at least 95% of the hard work is done, the rest is just implementation, which takes far less time. I think the only things they probably need to do is bug-hunt, stresstest and balance. Also, if you look at other MMO games, balancing usually isn't finished until after release, so I think they'll leave it go for their release if it's balanced enough to be playable. But nobody ever said I was a game design expert, heh.

[Arshune]

Oh yeah, any delays in release will also only prolong the beta period...

[Hamma]

He said around 50 starting then 22nd, then adding on more from there. (mainly broadband folks, because they have to download)

[ArtMan]

Nice intrview Hamma! He said around 50 every week until open beta.

[Sputty]

Hamma, good job. About the release date he was probably worried that IF there was a problem he'd be screwed because thousands would whine about it being another example of Davve and if he released early people would try to hang him. I think it was jsut standard precautions

[Arshune]

Does anyone remember exactly when he said the beta signups would open again? I know he said before some phase of beta, but I don't remember which one...

[ArtMan]

Before the final beta (extern/stres test) with 10000 players. He didnt exactly said when.

[ranked1]

Here's my math:

50 start the 22nd and each week they add 50 till they have 200. That's 4 weeks. Now Mar 22nd.

Let's say for next two weeks they open it up and allow 1,000-2,000 in to see how server loads look before External. Now Apr 5.

Then they ship out a whack of CD's for External and run it for 3 weeks. Now Apr 26th.

Go gold, ship, ect. Release May 15th.


I doubt they'll go to all the work of a beta and not run it for 4-8 weeks in total.

Maybe we should start a pool and place bets.

[MrVulcan]

Here is my 3.14159265358975..... cents

I think that the internal beta will have 50-200 people for about 2 weeks. Then it will hit about 1000-2000 for the next, then 10000 for the final week. Then open beta for 3 weeks.

I dont care when gold is, just open beta! Who cares if you have to play without paying lol!



P.S.
The bet idea dosnt sound bad.... We could bet Ammo rounds, tanks or a Galaxy for the rich guys out there lol

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Generally you go gold right when you start you final stage of open beta. Any problems you find in that is generally server side, and if it isn't you just download a patch on the first day, so never take into account the "going gold/shipping" factor as generally they will close off beta and go live within a few days.

if you're interested in WHY they are soo limited on beta, there's more detailed info here:

http://diost.com/beta.html

Basically explains all the problems involved with opening the beta of PS