WAR pushed back until "Fall"

[Xzin]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/26/wa...ed-until-fall/

"Many orcs are putting on their sad faces today as Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning suffers another delay. Eurogamer reports that the game's producer, Jeff Hickman, stated the title is being pushed from Q2 until the fall. WAR's last delay, which shifted it from 2007 to this year, was blamed on EA's takeover of Mythic, though it did affordthe company more time to polish the title.

The only thing that raises a red flag about WAR releasing this fall is a little game called World of Warcraft and its expansion that many believe will hit later this year. We're just saying, if we were releasing a fantasy-themed MMO, we'd leave as much breathing room as possible between our game and any WoW release."

[Xzin]

I wouldn't be so hasty yet.

[Ellay]

The push backs are definitely good for fine tuning, having to go up against the WoW expansion though is another story. Best of luck to them though, at first glance it looked VERY multi-boxer friendly so anything giving us more options is always welcomed.

[Ðeceased]

Hmm don't think it's doomed rly.. So many ppl I know playing wow can't wait to get out of the game :P except they are too addicted to not play, just like me :P

[Aradar]

Hmm don't think it's doomed rly.. So many ppl I know playing wow can't wait to get out of the game :P except they are too addicted to not play, just like me :P

Yeah, I'll definately try it but it would have to be far superior to WoW for me to walk away. I've got too much invested in WoW to switch to something that isn't a big improvement and I can't imagine playing both. On the other hand I've begun to find WoW pretty boring since I don't/can't raid, boxing has helped though, and by that time my "team" will be 70 which will likely determine if I wan't to stick around or not.

Also, if the next xpac and Warhammer come out at roughly the same time, I'll still try Warhammer but it's going to have to wait, lol.

[Eteocles]

Warhammer: Dude...Blizzard is risking pissing off their players by speed-tuning pvp stuff that breaks pve and offering arena tournaments just in anticipation of us and to tempt pvp players to stay...and we're not even out yet...just think of what they'll do if we did release D:
Warhammer Dev: I GOTS IT! WES GONNA RELEASE WHEN THEY DROP THEIR EXPANSION! SURE MAYBE IT BE COMPETITION BUT IT ALSO MEAN ANGRY BLUE TROLLS GON' BE DISTRACTED WITH BUGFIXING
And this is where those guys from the Guiness commercials pop up and simultaneously say "Brilliant!"

But yeah...if they don't turn into the next DNF they're still gonna have to put up a pretty big showing to compete with Wrath. Every MMO I've seen that gets delays tends to do badly because while it DOES allow more time to polish, it also AGES it. Ragnarok being the prime example; RO was one of the first MMOs after UO and EQ, probably one of the more widespread ones due to the length of it's beta(And Alpha, which I participated in, before skills/extra classes/arrows/potions even existed lol); it got fairly popular and thrived well enough once it went live, and RO2 was announced shortly thereafter.

RO2 beta was due like back in 2003, 2004 around Feb. Feb came and went with no news and the English site being taken down to boot. It kept being delayed according to the translated Korean notices, and while it did eventually start(korean beta only, though that didn't stop non-Korean players from joining), most people didn't give 2shits anymore or had moved on instead of waiting. Warhammer's had alot of press time, being a victim of their own hype they need to release while people are still hyped and willing, waiting too long people will lose interest, or other, better things will show up and distract them with their shininess.

[Tonuss]

My concern is that this sounds a lot like Vanguard. Pushing the release date back once, or maybe twice, a short amount of time is one thing. That would make it sound as if they simply wanted to fine tune things for a smoother release. But pushing back the release date months at a time with little comment, while boasting about the number of beta sign-ups, just doesn't sound like a company that has things in order and just wants a tiny bit of breathing space. They sound like a company delaying as long as they can in the hopes that what they release is not a TOTAL disaster and that they can take the subscription money and put it towards bug fixes after it goes live.

This is not a slam at the game. I am starting to get interested in it and I expect that a number of my friends and guildmates might be interested in it as well. But if they delay until they cannot delay any more, then release a product that isn't ready for prime time, it will be a bloodbath. No amount of "bear with us, just one more patch" will save them. And we really do not need any more failed or marginal products in this market. WoW is pretty much swallowing everything up, and that's not a good thing.

[Eteocles]

I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad thing, but that's only because of how WoW is a relatively solid game with a sturday fanbase and they manage to appeal to all kinds of gamers; raiders, pvpers, casuals, and even kids to some extent. Aka, the short of it, is that the "monopoly" as it were is one that doesn't suck at least; back when RO was the lead after EQ it was mostly because that's all there was. WoW provides alot, both base and additional free full-blown content(Entire new areas, rehauls, etc) to all the groups to boot.

So yeah...it may not be the best thing that WoW is so tough to go up against, but at least it's more or less worthy of it's "Unbeatable" title.

[Sentack]

It's disheartening to hear this, as I had planned to Multi-box on Warhammer Online as well. WoW was intended to be my 'training ground'.

Honestly I don't like the delays. It's starting to get to the point where you begin to wonder if it'll be even worth it in the end. The game has a strong likely hood of crashing and burning like Vanguard. A shame too, it sounds like they have some really neat ideas.

[mackenziemi]

Well to me, this is beginning to sound more and more like Ultima 9. I think it will come out and there will be innovative things in it, but it will be crap compared to whats available and it wont break WoW market share. Though developers will learn from it for years to come.