PCG UK indicates 2013 Launch

[JPalmer]

They keep saying soon both for beta announcement and beta release. Soon isn't October or November. It is next month or June.

[Tuomio]

Originally Posted by JPalmer

They keep saying soon both for beta announcement and beta release. Soon isn't October or November. It is next month or June.

Yes, it might be sooner than you think, ie. within 2 weeks as the saying goes..

[Lorgarn]

A lot of pessimistic(realistic?) thoughts here, suddenly my somewhat optimistic mindset feels a bit "out of place" so to speak.

I'm still hoping for a late Q2 Beta, especially since they keep saying "It's closer than you think". To me, that feels like a couple of months at the most, not 10 months.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by JPalmer

They keep saying soon both for beta announcement and beta release. Soon isn't October or November. It is next month or June.

Soon for a developer can mean years.

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by JPalmer

They keep saying soon both for beta announcement and beta release. Soon isn't October or November. It is next month or June.

Except they've been saying "soon" since 2011.

[Kurtz]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Soon for a developer can mean years.

I'm telling someone "soon" as we speak.

This game will be released on the 10th anniversary of Planetside.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Fenrod

Well, Beta is ''in a couple of months''.

Assuming this means 2-3 months, let's say in July.
Then, 3 months again until the release.

April/May + 6 months = November/October.

Well, I guess.

BETa has been "in the next couple months" since mid march. If that's accurate, expect a may beta imo.

[Destroyeron]

I'm just hoping beta is sometime before 2013...

[Fenrod]

Well I really hope so.

I'm craving for informations.

[JHendy]

Now I'm no sage or nothin', but something tells that me we can expect to see the beta within the next THREE to FOUR months. I'm leaning more towards the three mark. Late July perhaps?

[EVILoHOMER]

The game play we've seen so far makes the game look at least a year off. We've only seen one tiny controlled part and it looked super buggy, the sound design wasn't there, the net code wasn't there and the art work needs some work. I'm guessing they've showed the best most polished stuff so far so I'd hate to see the state of the rest of the game.

If SOE launch it this year then they'll rush another failed MMO....


I really love the new UIs though, the best UI that SOE has made for one of their games. So glad after the shockingly bad DCUO broken mess of a UI.

[sylphaen]

Originally Posted by Warborn

2013 sounds reasonable to me. I predict the timeline will be as follows:

E3 - Announce beta starting this Fall.
October - Beta begins to open gradually.
February - Open beta.
March 2013 - Release.

I second this with +1 month on all dates in order to land on May 2013 for release. 10 years birthday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlanetSide

[Bags]

Why would they say "we'll begin letting people in in the next couple months" and then not have beta till fall?

they were saying this late in march! Means april / may if they weren't lying or don't get held up.

[moosepoop]

if we get early beta i promise i will give sony many moneys

[Tasorin]

Smed's may have been at the helm when the SWG debacle happened, but he is no business strategy de-da-de. If you really look at what other AAA titles that are coming out in a similar time frame, SOE would be wise to strategically place the Live Launch in the lull of storms between games like Guild Wars 2, MechWarrior Universe, Hawken and World of Warplanes which all are using a variant of the F2P model.

One would expect Guild Wars 2 to come out either Nov. 12 or April 13 as those months coincide with NCSoft's fiscal mid-year and year end and are usually reserved for AAA title launches. All though Guild Wars 2 is using a pay for the unit and no monthly sub with a micro-transaction business mode and is a Fantasy based game rather then a FPS based game, it is going to be very popular and draw some away if PS2 was released right on top of GW2.

MechWarrior and Hawken are both F2P shooters and lack the persistent element that PS2 offer but MechWarrior's fan base is in my opinion larger then PS2's and is filled full of just as many die hard old gamers. The question is going to be does MW:U come out in Mid 4Q12 or does it get pushed to late 1Q13. MW:U is already running F&F Closed Beta and the next cycle of major invite closed beta will probably be this summer as well.

Hawken is much more of a Mechwarrior like game in a smaller persistent arena and is farther along then MW:U as of right now. I expect this game to be in Open Beta by the end of Summer and live launch in early Fall of 2012. Very similar F2P model as MW:U with a free client and micro-transactions being the business model.

World of Warplanes is already in Closed Alpha with a lot of invites already being sent out to players to participate. Global Alpha the makers of World of Tanks and World of Warplanes has already staffed up to 800 full time employees and is planning on adding another 300 through the Beta and Launch cycles. The F2P model for this game will be very similar to the World of Tanks model and is another F2P Shooter on the horizon for the end of 2012 and the start of 2013.

All that being said, I think a early 2013 launch right between the lull of these games would be right in Smed's wheelhouse and very typical of his year one business maximization strategies. Besides the longer Higgles and Krew take the more lush and dense Arauxis becomes and the more chance we have of getting all 3 Continents at launch.

PS2 is like a young fine wine.

The longer it ages in a properly corked and stored bottle the better the end product.