Champions Online: Beta Coming in Mid-August?

Aion or Champions Online? Or both? I've already pre-ordered Aion. I really enjoyed CoV for a while (well, while there was content), so if CO is going to follow the CoX formula...will it be worth it?

Not to mention I'll be sucked into BF1943 and MW2 in November. OohhhHhhh yeaaahhhhhh! CO better have monkeys that pick up lizootz to regain my interest!

Champions Online Open Beta - Some Clues

By: Colin June 26, 2009

Yesterday, I spent the day hanging out at Cryptic HQ in Los Gatos. Despite the pressure of the impending massive launch of Champions Online, the development of Star Trek Online and, reportedly, a ’secret’ third project, the team have found time to make some physical moves, with community, marketing and customer services shifting offices, albeit only across the road. Champions Online developers have stayed right where they are. Nobody in their right minds would try to move those guys at this particular juncture.

The launch date of September 1 looks to be ON, despite the fact that Beta feedback has been coming in thick and fast, and the team are wasting no time responding to player notes on the game. Trust me, there’s a lot of work going on right now and responding to feedback is much more than a mere formality. I interviewed half a dozen people yesterday, and they were all working on stuff directly germane to Beta feedback.

At one point, I spotted all the Big Bosses holed up in a meeting in the aquarium (large glass office) staring balefully at a ferociously complex chronology chart projected onto the wall. Every function of the game’s polishing and release phase slotted into place, each in their own colors (greens and purples are favored). They were in there for a while. There wasn’t much in the way of jolly japes going on. It looked like nitty gritty.

We’re still two months away from the September 1 launch of the PC game, so there’s plenty of time to get things done. Within that time-frame, an Open Beta needs to be organized. I can say that a firm date has been penciled in and although it’s not 100% confirmed it is slap bang in the middle of August.

My advice is if you have a vacation to Outer Mongolia, or maybe a fishing trip in the mid-Atlantic planned for central August, cancel it now!

As you’re probably aware, lots of detail has to be finalized before final announcements are made, mostly technical and legal stuff, but also the partners who’ll be involved in the Open Beta.

The Open Beta is really just there to make sure the technical infrastructure works, and there are no Snafus pre-launch. As far as game design and major bugs are concerned, they should be done by then.

Generally, Open Beta comes with some sort of special offer on the retail release of the game and subscription, so watch out for announcements along those lines in the near future.

Oh yeah, I also spotted a room full of large brown boxes, located in the marketing dept. After investigation, it turned out that these were stuffed with Champions Online T-shirts (very simple design - logo on a dark background) which I expect to feature in media and live-event contests in the very near future. I grabbed one, for research purposes.