Moved up release date?

[Furlined]

I know there hasn't been official word anywhere about a release date, but I just noticed over of the EQ2interface site that someone received an email from EBgames updating them on the release date of the EQ2 preorder. The new date being Nov 8th. I checked out EBgames and sure enough all the EQ2 products have had their date changed to Nov 8th from the previously listed Nov 15th.

Again that's not official. Don't stab the messenger.

[JookaWoo]

couple friends recieved the same email about there pre orders as well. Id say Nov for sure since it even says expected november on the station store. Wouldnt be suprised to see it come out then at all.

[heykid7576]

I heard somewhere that they moved the release date to the 8th, who knows though since theres no official announcement

[ShadowCross]

The only way EQ2 is ready for release on Nov 8th is if they change the year to 2005...

[JookaWoo]

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=betagameplay&message.id=73143



First and foremost, thanks for helping us test EQ2. We're getting great feedback and you're helping us find and fix problems at a very rapid rate.

I wanted to address a couple of concerns:

1) Login - these issues should be completely gone in the next few days. Sorry for the problems, but simply put there were problems that needed addressing.. and addressing them caused some bugs.. those will be gone quickly.

2) Lag - it's really 2 zones atm.. it's Antonica and Commonlands. The team has made great strides in this area..and they have some big stuff coming in within the next few days that we hope is really going to get things back to normal. It's gotten a lot better, but we see it too (we're all playing EQ 2 all the time). This will go away before we launch. Please also understand that we have very deliberately been running the servers at what we consider to be the maximum capacity. In the next day or so we'll add another server or two to the list that players can go to. This should help a lot since as we let in a lot of new people we won't be seeing them all go in to the existing ones. Our strategy here is a simple one - to keep the servers stressed out to make sure we address server performance issues. At launch we will have a significant number of servers, so in and of itself this should help a great deal.. but we're not relying on that. We're going to make sure the performance is good.

3) Launch - The offical announcement comes out tomorrow. While I understand that some of you may feel the game is coming out too early.. we feel very strongly that we can address the remaining issues and have a very smooth and successful launch. We have a lot of things that we're testing internally before we open them up to you all... and that does include a ton of bug fixes that are underway. The team is closing bugs out at a lightning fast rate. From the outside, when you see login issues it looks like we've taken a step backward.. and I can understand how it appears that way. But the people on this team are stone cold pros who have done this for a long time and are dedicated to making sure EQ2 is an enjoyable experience.

Thanks,

John Smedley
President, Sony Online Entertainment

[Gyorg]

Ie: none of our bugs are cat1 or 2 and we honestly can't wait to release so we're going to bite the bullet and try and steal WoW's thunder because if EQ1 taught us anything it's who's first to market that wins, not who's best.

I honestly would like to play EQ2. It gives me that feeling I had playing EQ1 (up until epics) of being in a new world and making it your own. WoW just didn't do that for me. It felt like walking into an amusement park w/ lots to do and see, but not like being part of a world. Now if I can only find the money to buy a computer strong enought to run EQ2, SoH, WoW, or any other modern game, I'd be in a position to play something.

[Fubbik]

Nov 8th it is:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/10-25-2004/0002308367&EDATE

/Fubbik

[ShadowCross]

This is gonna be the worst release since Anarchy Online.

[Vestas]

Shadow I may have to disagree with you there. Anarachy Online's beta was horribly unstable, crash prone, and buggy. Even the noobie zones were.

EQII's noobie zones seem stable, content complete and few bugs.

[ShadowCross]

must be playing a different game than me.

- Server or zones crashing every 5 mins
- awful lag in the big zones (causing them to crash often)
...

Maybe the problems are mainly on the localized servers, but seeing as they are going live on the same date, that's my concern.

[Vestas]

I'll agree with that. Given your experience I'd have the same reservations. Interesting to know whether or not it was a localization issue, perhaps the infrastructure is worse for those machines?

Time will tell I imagine.

[Slyy Daugg]

I haven't played in either WoW or EQ2 beta, but from all I've read, WoW is way more ready for release. Would I be off in saying that? I mean it seems to me SOE is rushing out a product, and Blizzard is just letting it happen for no reason. Blizzard should move release to Nov. 5th or something. They'd be alot better off than SOE will be when they release EQ2 on the 8th, yes?

SD

[JookaWoo]

played WoW only during the stress test months ago, was 100% more stable/polished than my experience w/ eq2 this past couple weeks. I tried to like eq2 as a few of my firend are determined to play it after release but I honestly cant stand it.

[Itzena]

Blizzard should move release to Nov. 5th or something.
Release?
Nah.


Now, having the open beta start, OTOH.... :evil

[Vestas]

Blizzard will most likely start their open Beta at or around EQII's release date to drum up some hype. This whole business with Vivendi announcing WoW release date as the 22nd the other day was purely a PR move to take some hype away from EQII's release announcement. Blizzard countered it saying it wasn't true but you can bet their publisher is chomping at the bit to get a release in competition with EQ II.

Starting WoW open beta the week of the 8th will definately put a dent in EQII's opening week sales. Letting EQII launch without it risks people buying EQII, getting hooked, and not wanting to leave for another game.

On the other hand, they could be banking on the hope that EQII will have a horrible launch and people will quickly defect for WoW. It's all up in the air at this point.

[Dedpool]

You think this is gonna be bad Sx, just wait for The Matrix Online release. :beatup

[Marbh]

You think this is gonna be bad Sx, just wait for The Matrix Online release. :beatup


Hahah, no doubt. They better keep the NDA till 3 months after launch.