Lastest Beta News

[Release]

http://en.wow-europe.com/

With the European launch of World of Warcraft just around the corner we're happy to be able to give details on the final stages of the European Beta Test process.

The current participants in the European Closed Beta Test will soon be able to try out the French and German localized versions of the game. The localized versions will be available for download in the upcoming days, and French and German localization forums will be available tomorrow, Thursday 16th 2004 for discussions and suggestions.

At the same time the localized versions are available, the European Closed Beta testers will be treated to an exclusive of the much awaited upcoming World of Warcraft patch, before it reaches the US and Korean servers. The patch will be available in the localized versions as well as English. More news about the contents of the patch will be available soon.

The Final Beta Test, which is currently scheduled for the end of December / beginning of January, will begin simultaneously in English, French and German. The start of the Final Beta Test will be the next time new testers will be welcomed to join the game.

We are pleased to announce that current Closed Beta testers will be transferred automatically to the Final Beta Test and there will be no deletion of characters between the Closed and Final Beta Test. The purchasers of the limited number of pre-order boxes sold through the official Blizzard pre-order campaign will also have access to the Final Beta Test and will be amongst the next phase of new testers to enter the game. In addition more players will be included during the Final Beta Test as more servers are added in preparation for the game launch in early 2005. Details on how to activate these accounts will be given on our website and we will inform you as soon as there is more information concerning the start date of the Final Beta Test.

Hopefully they will announce something before Christmas...

 

[oblimov]

im gettin such a woody of this

mon the wow

im bored shitless with everything else

 

[Squalion]

im playing korean beacuse im bored

 

[Shortlegs]

So late december or early january for final beta.
Ehm, ok then

Had my hopes up that we would se it before christmas, but it is better to get some info than no info at all.

Hmm, time to do Doom 3 in Hell mode I guess.

 

[Fafnir]

I'm impressed that they are releasing next patch for Euro first. So 2-3 weeks to final beta, hope they only run 2 weeks of it, then we can all start playing for real

 

[Whisperess]

The Final Beta Test, which is currently scheduled for the end of December / beginning of January

Lemme guess, final beta will be delayed 'til 1 week before actual release date.

 

[LordjOX]

Such Blizzard abuse

 

[Elenos]

But this is still very good news as it means those who do not yet have their beta boxes from GAME and gameplay will get them .. wait for it.. during the christmas shutdown!! woo hoo!! or they will get stuck in the backlog of all the festive cards being sent to everybody. Excellent.. ahem.. anyway I hope it is early January cos It'll be a great birthday pressie from Blizzard (31st December if you were wondering) and ill be too busy to play between 26th and the 31st

Still its good news

 

[Evoknox]

If they gonna release retail right after open beta, like they did in US, the dutch shops are right with 14 january as release date

 

[AhoyHoy]

I still havent received my bastard Beta Key through the post >.<

 

[oblimov]

hmm korean beta

still open?

givf details in pm squal

 

[Swifti]

Any ideas on what to do now to pass the time? Im stuck in bed with a broken leg and im running out of things to do :S. I might just try and patch US WoW and nab an account from somewhere.

Thats if Blizard agrees to the use of paypal.

I cant wait 2 weeks
:eek2:

 

[Fana]

If they say "late december / early january" you can be sure as hell that we wont see any final beta in december Its a fucking insult to european players that they didnt spend more time on the localized versions prior to US release.

 

[Jakus Morgan]

Got my pre-order box/beta key from Game last Friday & I'm well disapointed that I won't be able to play until at least the end of December.

I'm also less than impressed at the delay with the European launch compared to the US launch.
Looks like we're going to end up in a DAoC type situation where the europeans get a new patch many weeks after the US does.

Already, at launch, we're over two months behind.

 

[Asha]

If they say "late december / early january" you can be sure as hell that we wont see any final beta in december Its a fucking insult to european players that they didnt spend more time on the localized versions prior to US release.

When they opened the USA servers, they were largely unplayable for 1-2 weeks until they doubled the number of servers.
USA sold ~200k copies preorder (iirc)
EU is at ~300k preorders
I am hoping that the delay with the European servers coming up means that they are actually preparing for this huge number of ppl to be on so that maybe there is a delay now, but we won't have the US situation of queues/server problems.
Hoping is the key word there ^^

 

[Fana]

Hoping is the key word there ^^

Hope is such an elusive word :/

 

[Belorfyn]

I was really disappointed by that news..
Had been looking forward to play on christmas holidays, whether open beta or retail I don't care so much..... First I was disappointed by retail not coming for christmas, this was before I had looked into the game so much so I just didn't know it wasn't scheduled for christmas (usually safe to assume they would be, eh ), so my mistake.
Well anyway, I order two beta boxes, one for me and one for my brother and look forward to play open beta on holidays.. And now it's looking that we can't, BAH!

People in blizzard forum argue that it's beta test and not for our enjoyment.. Okay, that didn't stop Blizzard from selling loads of preorder boxes with the beta "invitation" which surely made me buy one (well, two), else I would had waited until I saw whether I got into the open beta by luck and got to try out the game, but since there was beta access included in the preorder, I ordered them so that I'd be there for sure when I learned release wouldn't be before christmas holidays.

Well, Blizzard won't see much of the non positive feedback..Why ? Can't post in Blizzard forum unless you're in closed beta that's why!

I feel cheated.

 

[Turamber]

Back in my DAoC days I got used to being called "n00b" or "nub" because I didn't play in beta. Will I now be able to spam that to you open beta players?

 

[Belorfyn]

On top of that EU people "exclusively" get to beta test next patch for the US people so they don't see bugs

Okay, I admit that's bit exaggerated but don't see why EU version couldn't had atleast STARTED open beta with patch that US RELEASED game with...

 

[Belorfyn]

Back in my DAoC days I got used to being called "n00b" or "nub" because I didn't play in beta. Will I now be able to spam that to you open beta players?

Hehe. I played for 2 hours or so in beta with brother's account. I made character, started doing one of those go-and-talk-to-other-npc tasks and got bored looking for him and dying to mob on way, and then logged out. Next time I played was at start of retail

Right at end of DAoC beta it turned out I would had had my own account to use too.. But I had happily missed the email inviting me there

 

[Vae]

Back in my DAoC days I got used to being called "n00b" or "nub" because I didn't play in beta. Will I now be able to spam that to you open beta players?

Nope because you'll still be a n00b Tur

 

[Turamber]

Nope because you'll still be a n00b Tur

I'd laugh but it's true

 

[Fedaykin]

tbh there is no excuse for a bad launch in Europe - they know the demand is goign to be extremely high, they need to have lots servers up and running right away, queues will be unacceptable - unless for some reason people choose to migrate to one particular server

i still expect a lot of lag right at the start, on US retail there was unavoidable lag - because thousands of people were all in the same few starting areas, as soon as peopel progressed it got much better though

 

[Raine]

Classic Blizzard, dont expect a Feb release of retail euro wow. Its Blizzard after all, expect the worst hope for the best and get a big book to read.

Dont get me wrong cause I hope im wrong ive just played blizz games for years and they are the lords of delay. This smells like the beginning of many more delays.

Like I said I hope im wrong.

 

[Jupitus]

2 weeks holiday sitting in the bank here... watch out you uber folks, I'll be level 3 before you reach 60!!!


*looks for a confused smiley*

 

['Shy]

I don't have any holiday allocation left until April so I'll be *ahem* sick *ahem* for a while, starting just as soon as the beta does! Kindof a bit of luck in a way, saves booking holiday and then cancelling it

 

[Linnet]

Blah, I have a few weeks holiday and then start a new job on Jan 10th (watch for final beta starting on the 9th )

I'm sure it's all personal!

 

[Shawr]

I'd rather they take a bit longer and get it all working 100%, than release it early when the servers can't handle the strain.

 

[Sky]

I just want to read the patch notes!

 

[Whisperess]

I just want to read the patch notes!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/patch-11-17-04.html

Have fun.