The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

[May 25, 2012, 11:18 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Funcom announces a new July 3rd launch date for The Secret World, with Early Access starting June 29th, a slight delay for their MMORPG that was last expected on June 19th. Word is: "The new launch date places The Secret World in a more positive launch window which will benefit the launch of the game." They also announce details on a third beta weekend for the game titled "Hell Raised" that will be conducted beginning on June 15th and a final event to follow the week after that:

Funcom today announced that the company has made a small adjustment to the release date for The Secret World. Due to market reasons, the ship date has been moved by two weeks to July 3rd, with Early Access starting June 29th. The new launch date places The Secret World in a more positive launch window which will benefit the launch of the game.

We are also excited to share with you the dates and content of the remaining Beta Weekends!

The third Beta Weekend, titled 'Hell Raised', will begin on June 15th and run until June 17th. In this Beta Weekend players will be able to experience the Illuminati and Dragon starter experiences as well as the Templar experience. Players will also get to leave Kingsmouth and venture into the massive region known as Savage Coast, where they will soon find that the very gates of hell itself have opened up! This will allow players to experience the epic 'Hell Raised' dungeon where you will have to battle the demons of hell itself!

MMORPG.com and Massively.com played through the 'Hell Raised' dungeon recently, and judging from their previews they had a hell of a good time. You can check out their impressions here.

The fourth and final Beta Weekend will begin on June 22nd and run until June 24th. This event will focus on the player vs. player experience in The Secret World, and players will get to sample both the Eldorado battlefield experience as well as the massive warzone gameplay where over a hundred players clash together in persistent battle. Here the Illuminati, the Templars and the Dragon will get to duke it out and hone their battle skills on each other before the real conflict begins when Early Access opens on June 29th.

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11.

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 28, 2012, 00:34

Jerykk

Longest Journey 3. That's all I ask for.

10.

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 26, 2012, 08:47

Zadig

I think Conan is to blame for this, and probably every other funcom problem. Instead of wasting a lot of time and money making a doomed WoWclone, a small portion of those resources could've been used to refresh Anarchy Online and add a lot of polish to Secret World. It's sad to see original ideas die on the vine because an awful WoWclone got all the fertilizer.

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 26, 2012, 00:39

HorrorScope

PropheT wrote on May 25, 2012, 16:07: Fion wrote on May 25, 2012, 12:45: My biggest problem with it is that the model is subscription fee + 'heavy' microtransactions (you only get 2 character slots per account to start for example). It simply isn't good enough to warrant such a steep cost. (Especially compared to GW2...) Heavy is kind of an understatement. It's pre-launch, and they have extra character slots available for purchase right now for $10...and additional name reservations for preorders for $10. $10 to reserve a name is just ballsy, and if it's any indication as to how they're going to handle microtransactions with the game... Anyway, there's a reason it's still under NDA even though it's supposed to come out very soon here. I agree, it tells me they learned nothing and this is a company that needed to still learn a lot. Failcom, sorry but it fits.

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 20:40

Cutter

This is probably the end of Funcom. Thye just don't have what it takes to make a MMO.




"Peter, breakfast for dinner is anarchy!" - Lois

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 17:39

PsychoMoggieBagpuss

No way I'd give funcom any more money after what they did with AoC.




PMB

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 16:07

PropheT

Fion wrote on May 25, 2012, 12:45: My biggest problem with it is that the model is subscription fee + 'heavy' microtransactions (you only get 2 character slots per account to start for example). It simply isn't good enough to warrant such a steep cost. (Especially compared to GW2...) Heavy is kind of an understatement. It's pre-launch, and they have extra character slots available for purchase right now for $10...and additional name reservations for preorders for $10. $10 to reserve a name is just ballsy, and if it's any indication as to how they're going to handle microtransactions with the game... Anyway, there's a reason it's still under NDA even though it's supposed to come out very soon here.

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 13:56

SimplyMonk

NKD wrote on May 25, 2012, 12:24: Needs about a 4-6 month delay IMHO. The first thing I did when I read the news and saw "Due to market reasons..." was load up all the video game releases scheduled around its initial release date and see what it was trying to avoid competition with. There is literally NOTHING getting released in the anywhere near its release date that would at all compete with it. The only reasons I could figure for pushing it back was: 1) The game isn't ready, but they didn't want to say that 2) They wanted to distance themselves a few paychecks away from Diablo 3, but they knew D3's release well in advance 3) GW2 doesn't look like it will release in June, so they figured they could push back and still be first to market Ignoring any internal reasons such as failures on a production level or fiscal quarter maneuverings, (1) to me seems the most likely. They know they need work and with nothing on the horizon except GW2 to really worry about they figured they can take the additional time, although the amount of time may not be enough for that.

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 12:49

Cabezone

So the beta feedback they get is that the game needs a lot more polish.....and they delay it for a week.




"Pants! Pants! Pants!"

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 12:45

Fion

I wouldn't say the game is terrible. There are certainly some interesting ideas and the game has a really solid vibe going on. But it is 'really' rough around the edges. My biggest problem with it is that the model is subscription fee + 'heavy' microtransactions (you only get 2 character slots per account to start for example). It simply isn't good enough to warrant such a steep cost. (Especially compared to GW2...) I really don't know whats been up with Funcom in these last several years, they've been doing some pretty 'meh' work, even with a company restructuring. Perhaps it's money issues, perhaps it's lack of talent. Their 2001 Anarchy Online was a smash to play (though it too was extremely rough around the edges at launch, Funcom did a great deal to fix that in the first few months). It was original, beautifully designed and extremely innovative, as have been the expansions (for example we get the term Themepark, a quest driven MMOG from their first expansion. WoW borrowed very heavily from the idea.)

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 12:27

Angrius Maximis

Game is terrible

Re: The Secret World Delay; Beta Details

May 25, 2012, 12:24

NKD

Needs about a 4-6 month delay IMHO.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

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