WAR beta to hit a million sign-ups

By Oli Welsh Published 3 April, 2008

So reckons Mythic boss.

EA Mythic's general manager Mark Jacobs has said that he's confident the beta for forthcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning could surpass one million users once the title is opened up to Asian markets, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

A closed beta for the game has been live for over a year. Jacobs has said he's pleased with the number of people signing up for the open beta phase, which has already surpassed the 500,000 mark.

"Actually, I'd be surprised if we didn't hit one million once we start taking beta apps for our Asian partners," said Jacobs in a post on theIGN forums.

"Even without Asia, based on our current sign-up rate, we should blow through 750,000 and we have a decent shot at one million.

"Since we have already far surpassed my initial goal, I'm quite happy with what we have," Jacobs continued. "And since I'm sure somebody will ask this, my goal, post EA, was to have 500K signed up in North America and Europe."

Jacobs has been very active on forums lately. Last week he defended the game's recent delay to autumn 2008 over on Warhammer Alliance. He said he would rather learn from Blizzard that worry about going head-to-head with World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

"One of the lessons from developers like BioWare and Blizzard is that you can't rush a great game to market," Jacobs said. "By taking the necessary time to make WAR a great game, we feel it will be able to stand out in any season. We would rather release a great game in the fall then a good one any other time."

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MBar #1 4 years ago

    I remain unconvinced by your game, sir.

  • Benno #2 4 years ago

    Who cares, it looks shit

  • Lemming81 #3 4 years ago

    @Benno: You look shit

  • Prox #4 4 years ago

    What's the latest word on when this beta will open up?

  • Drone #5 4 years ago

    I wish more companies adopted the "its ready when its ready" approach instead of releasing games that have great potential but turn out to be shit to play

  • crazyhorse174 #6 4 years ago

    I predict that the majority of those predicted 1,000,000 people will play for a while, get tired and go back to WoW.

  • Benno #7 4 years ago

    @Lemming81

    Touché :D

  • M83J01P97 #8 4 years ago

    The game looks shit because it's not the final game engine being tested in this closed beta. They have said that since day one. In order to tailor the game to it's optimum performance specs without alienating a lot of people who can't run it, they have specifically used a very 'uncomplicated' graphics engine for this beta, and as time goes by, they gradually add to the overall quality level of the game until it can comfortably run on a large number of different machines.

  • anomagnus #9 4 years ago

    @benno

    god, i hate that argument

    it looks as good as good as wow, and looks a lot better in movies than in stills

    but aside from that, who cares about graphics in an mmorpg, its about content, not looks.

    @crazyhorse

    I predict you're right, but i also predict that more than enough people will stick around to make WAR a success, and the mindless kids who want the latest tier 19 amour set will rush back to WoW.

    I fully expect Age of Conan and Warhammer Online to decimate the mature player base in WoW.

  • bengray66 #10 4 years ago

    To be honest, aren't they all "the same game in a new skin". I played wow for a few months, and when i got to 70, i lost all interest. Whats the point of spending days and weeks getting better armour, when in a few months, it will be totally obsolete? Thus i have taken my bow, and stepped away from all things MMO until something totally new and unique hits the market.

  • Benno #11 4 years ago

    It looks shit. Sorry but it does.

    Wow is starting to look shit and dated, but atleast the animations are of a quality.

    The WAR animations are horrific.

  • Benno #12 4 years ago

    In terms of player base, I think wows mature audience will go to WAR and Conan like you said.

    I also think that many of the immature cunts who plague wow now, will also move to WAR.

    I think Conan will have a smaller but more mature and friendly player base (like city of heroes has now).

    Many will stick with WoWcrack though.

  • Benno #13 4 years ago

    "Who cares about graphics in MMOs anyway"

    Me.

  • Velios #14 4 years ago

    it's usually the character animation that lets these things down, a real shame. At least in EVE-Online their is no character animation to speak of so everything looks beautiful.

  • Benno #15 4 years ago

    yeah, i refuse to play guild wars because the running animations look wierd

    sounds stupid, but if i game cant get its running animations correct, i'll hate it

  • Lemming81 #16 4 years ago

    As has been said numerous times, the animations aren't final. That's what they are doing right now until release. The beta was to test gameplay - not pretties.

  • AhSoul #17 4 years ago

    you hope.... :)

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #18 4 years ago

    Well look at LOTRO everyone screamed 'WoW clone' at that (even tho WoW 'cloned' ideas from that resently), yet STILL bought the game, and yet a small number still raced to the end claimed 'the game will fail in a year' and YET the game is still going and is far more MMORPG-like than WoW..

    Imho I think some players scream clone a lot as their too devoted to their WoW characters and feel that if a game actally came out to dethrown WoW that means their characters are 'meaningless' they've got in their heads that an epiced out character in WoW means repect in real life, that my friends is a truly sad person.. Others on the other hand scream clone as WoW is their first MMO and yet to relise that WoW is a basic form of a MMORPG and really what Blizzard do is take other good ideas from other games, it's like the Windows of MMO gaming

  • Benno #19 4 years ago

    @Aspic

    Read my other comments.

  • Benno #20 4 years ago

    Nah mate, when it came out it ran half decent on my old comp and I thought the graphics were very good. Especially next to my PS2.

    WARS graphics look worse if anything. They look about a decade old (no, really, they look like a ps2 game mid way through its life). No doubt it will run on lower spec machines, but i couldn't give a rats ass - it looks shit.

    I am not a warhammer fan, so excuse my lack of excitement about a game which is the same as wow, but worse in every respect (from what I have seen/read/researched)

    My opinion of course.

  • Benno #21 4 years ago

    I dont mean to sound like a WoW fanboy btw. I have played the game on and off since lauch, been very frustrated with it, hated it before.

    All in all though, I have to commend Blizzard. World of Warcraft is the greatest MMO ever made, and no game will touch it until Blizzard make their next MMO. As was said in the WAR preview, it just doesn't have the "WoW factor". take LOTR online for example. Its got great graphics, fine combat, and i absolutly love the LOTR universe. But the game just didn't do it for me. I cant put my finger on it. I guess it is a testament to Blizzard as game developers.

    WAR has "flop" all over it. I am surprised its looking so "meh" after considering the Devs behind it.
    Edited by Benno at 03/04/08 @ 23:05

  • Tio #22 4 years ago

    I was so looking forward to this game a year ago.

    I don't know why but now its all a bit "meh" and " ho-hum".

    Comparisons to WoW are probably unfair, i was bored of WoW two months after Burning Crusade. However i wanted DAOC2 and this i felt was probably the closest i was going to get. WoW has just made me feel disinterested in MMO's.