Beta and GA dates announced?

[melorian]

did you see this 'diary' post?

http://www.planetside2.com/news/dec232011backstory

notice the dates at the very end of the TR senate minutes?

Feb 12th
May 13th

is this a sneaky way of announcing the Beta and GA dates?

[Zulthus]

First, I'll say that I think this is kind of a reach. But it's good speculation.

Second, it kind of would make it seem that way just by how it was worded.

"If you can raise the necessary number of volunteers" It kind of sounds like a sneaky Beta announcement. The date seems appropriate as well.

"A launch date of May 13" The same month the original PlanetSide was released in. It doesn't seem like the Beta would be long enough though.


Good find, melorian!


EDIT: I read a bit further into it, just because I have nothing else to do. A few things I noticed:

-300,000 volunteers needed for the wormhole exploration. That seems like a nice number for Beta, eh?

-"Launch date of May 13, 2638, the anniversary of the Armistice.." MAYBE referring to the anniversary month of PlanetSide 1?

[SKYeXile]

Yea we speculated the same thing with May in the other thread. I missed the feb date, but that would seem like an appropriate start date for beta. if apparently the friends and family has already started, it give them a month and abit to test the operation of the client and features, polish up the game alittle more before closed beta. ~2.5 months of closed beta and then 2 weeks of open beta isn't really enough time though. closed beta should go for more time that that to make sure the game system's and are functional with enough time to change them if needed, seems too short.

[Ailos]

They've been pushing tight deadlines all year long, and I imagine this is part of that.

Good catch though. And I think those are more like target deadlines rather than actual deadlines. Their whole approach up to this point has been "it's ready when it's ready", so the may thing may not be a concrete date, but maybe a goal? But the February date for closed beta makes perfect sense.

[duck]

I don't think Higby and co. are following a strict deadline. The philosophy has always been "release when finished" with PS2. With that said, I don't think anyone over at SOE knows an exact date that they are going to have beta starting, but most likely they set themselves a certain month.

[Bravix]

Feb 12 is my birthday, so if beta is on that date...well Higby, you know what to get me for my birthday

[SKYeXile]

oh yea problem with those dates, they're both sundays, while beta may start on a sun, i cant see a game launching on a sunday, i would like to be proven wrong. may 13th sounds good.

[BorisBlade]

Haha, as much fun as i have with the speculating and rumors as much as the rest of ya, no its not a sneaky date thing. Thats just what they threw in for the dates in the fiction. If they had actually used teh exact launch dates of ps1 or somethin, then that might be a hint of somethin but this is completely random. =)

Considering how much more important beta testing on larger scales is to this game than to...well, most all other games because its gameplay is based on what those people will do which you cant reliably determine without actual players. Most betas are just there to stress things or to find bugs or maybe do some refining. But PS2 will need it to determine player flow and how exactly people play the game and what needs to change in order to get their vision to come thru. Honestly cant think of any other game that would be so dependant on the players. In most games it's pretty simple to predict what players will do. A more complex game like PS2, not so much. And even larger numbers of people can have dramatically different playstyles than smaller scales. So getting in the max number of people to test will be very important even earlier on.

[Joanic Sicos]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

. ~2.5 months of closed beta and then 2 weeks of open beta isn't really enough time though. closed beta should go for more time that that to make sure the game system's and are functional with enough time to change them if needed, seems too short.

I don't know if I agree - PS2 ain't an RPG - Beta won't be testing quest chains, NPC interaction, Spells/abilities working as they should, NPC dialouge, End game content etc...

We have literally (from what we know about)

Base Capture/Defense
Cert/Skill Tree Management
Class system
Equipment/Vehicle balance
Resource Management
and of course, Cash shop

Thats it... I really think, if the game is polished (and who to say that it is not) that 2.5 months is more than enough. Then two weeks of open beta for player load, stress test and Boris's point about player flow...

[Nephilimuk]

I ran over a hare this morning and killed it stone dead. When I got out of the car and checked that no damage was on my car. On close inspection of the hare I noticed that its guts had formed a giant mushroom shape. More interesting its liver had been squiged into the shape +2 weeks.

Going off this and ancient Roman traditions I think we are now going to have nuclear armageddon on the 10th January 2012.

Alternatively just read the bible codex or play a Led Zep song backwards

Joking aside I find looking for hints as fun as the next person but its just speculation.

[RedKnights]

That would be really elegant wouldn't it?

Beta, they need thousands of volunteers (us) to go through the wormhole where we will fight, each of us was a mission volunteer.

Launch Date: The true fighting begins, just as their exploration has.

It's like poetry, but with more killing.

[none]

May 13's my B-day. That would work out quite well.

[GuvNuh]

I forget who, but someone summed this up quite nicely in an earlier thread.

"impatientdance.gif"

I expect towards the end of Q1 or a little into Q2 we may see the beta open up. It would suprise the hell outta me if it came any earlier than that.

[DviddLeff]

I thought that as I read it.

We can but hope

[EASyEightyEight]

If the game has a purchase price off the shelf, it's believable an open beta would need to last longer.

If it's totally free to play... just how much sense is there in even having an open beta? Planetside 2 might as well be considered released. I know they won't hold months of closed beta, the game survives on numbers, and most reliable testing is done behind closed doors with real, hired testers or family since they're free and always in touch, not random unaffiliated schmucks who won a mini virtual lottery or know a fansite's admin personally that more often than not NEVER submit anything, even bug reports.

The dates make sense. It's just speculation right now, granted, but I can see SOE wanting to release PS2 on PS1's anniversary date. Seems almost poetic considering this is a re-imagining of the war, not a true sequel.