As we all know, release dates get pushed back all the time.  I wanted to create a poll to see what the majority believes will be the actual release of this game, taking into account unforseen problems.  I did this with WAR and wanted to see the results for AoC.

Well couple of things for me say they will still make their 25th march release date (few days after for Europe)

1. The advertisement for multi-lingual people for work, quite possibly to help the translating, recently.

2. an unfounded rumour that I heard today saying the release date might be brought forward to start of march'08 - although personally i wont put much stock in that.

3. The fact that they are actively inviting people to general beta - in large numbers, and putting the word out

4. The announcement of a huge press / taking the game on tour / showing etc in January (was in Athelan's radio interview, plus also mentioned in latest competition)

5. The recent hands on showing for press (mmorpg.com, warcy, etc)

Everything that has been coming out the last few weeks reads as a big step up, in line with a release end of march. Although I am mildly worried not a great deal has been shown for some caster classes, there is a good chance that some might get revamped or omited / constrained / merged. But thats just a thought and with experience from older games being in beta happening to them too. Things look good for a march release in my opinion as it stands now, more so than last August with the pre october release date.

But even if it does get put back again, i'll still be waiting, just want it the best it can be when I get to play it.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Well couple of things for me say they will still make their 25th march release date (few days after for Europe)

1. The advertisement for multi-lingual people for work, quite possibly to help the translating, recently.

2. an unfounded rumour that I heard today saying the release date might be brought forward to start of march'08 - although personally i wont put much stock in that.

3. The fact that they are actively inviting people to general beta - in large numbers, and putting the word out

4. The announcement of a huge press / taking the game on tour / showing etc in January (was in Athelan's radio interview, plus also mentioned in latest competition)

5. The recent hands on showing for press (mmorpg.com, warcy, etc)

Everything that has been coming out the last few weeks reads as a big step up, in line with a release end of march. Although I am mildly worried not a great deal has been shown for some caster classes, there is a good chance that some might get revamped or omited / constrained / merged. But thats just a thought and with experience from older games being in beta happening to them too. Things look good for a march release in my opinion as it stands now, more so than last August with the pre october release date.

But even if it does get put back again, i'll still be waiting, just want it the best it can be when I get to play it.

-Funcom recently invited many people from the media to go and play with AoC for a day recently. If they were not confident that their work was going good, this wouldn't have happened. The various websites that attended seemed pleased with the game in its current state.

-A promised "flood of information," to be released in January sometime. If they planned on delaying the game once again this would not be happening. Some people have noticed that the Friday Updates don't have quite is much Umph as they did before they announced the last delay, this is to keep us always asking questions, to keep our hype level high, if we knew everything I'm sure that some people would be kind of bored with knowing that they will know every mechanic when the game is released.

-There is currently a contest that will be flying the winner to Oslo to be in AoC heaven for some time. Again, FunCom is confident in their work and ready to show it off.

The game is fine, FC wouldn't be doing this if they planned on releasing the game this time next year.

I think they'll probably make the date, although I hope that it will be for all the right reasons. I dont want it to be because they pushed it already and dont want to alienate people. I dont want it to be because they feel the need to beat WAR to the punch. You might lose a few initially, but if you put out a high quality product, you'll reap the benefits for a long time, if you dont, that's a gamble that you cant win with MMO's. (see EQ2 sub's as compared to WoW, and VGSoH)

The recent Jorgen Tharldsen interview ( Found Here ) gives me some confidence that they have the right reasons for making the decisions that they have.

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Tomec: AoC: Hyborian Adventures is highly anticipated, especially considering rumors of its development began in 2003 – two years before the official announcement of its early development. With recent titles such as Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Gods ‘N Heroes experiencing much of the same anticipation, yet still failing, do you believe you have a greater chance of success?

Jørgen: Yeah I think we have more anticipation than Vanguard and Gods ’N Heroes combined and I don’t foresee that we will flop at all. We received more than 20 covers for the game so far. We cleaned the awards ceremonies in Europe and E3 for like 3 years in a row now. We see that the feed back from about 10,000 beta testers is really really, good. People are having a lot of fun. Our servers are rock solid, you know really stable and we have been doing this for so many years but Gods ’N Heroes hasn’t released a game before. The Vanguard guys, it’s a shame the way it happened, but I think that they too should have done like we did and perhaps given it a few more months because we have been good on making sure we have enough time to polish the game. So I would be very surprised if it flopped. We learned a rather painful lesson with Anarchy Online in 2001. If you remember the launch of that game a long, long time ago, and that game is still running successfully, so I think we know what it takes to be a success. We have a good license behind us. We have 179 developers working on the game and combined release of 10 MMOs and about 150 release of pc games, I believe we are in a pretty ok position. I hope so at least.

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For a game that was supposed to be "finished" in October 2007, we are not seeing any detailed information being released.

Also, if you look back at events that took place and information that was released just before release date was pushed back last time, you can clearly see - game was not finished and it was a carefully planned delay. I am certain, the delay was not caused by the combat system. If it was we would be seeing detailed info about other parts of the game by now.

Right now it looks like Q4 2008 or even 2009.

Originally posted by Baikal

...

The recent Jorgen Tharldsen interview ( Found Here ) gives me some confidence that they have the right reasons for making the decisions that they have.

...

Do you remember what they were saying this summer? Same stuff. Even one day prior to the delay.

Trust me when I say this game is getting delayed again.

I recon it will be delayed, but not by much - 6 weeks maybe.

There is obviously pressure coming from somewhere for the release or else they wouldnt have given an exact date this early. I think when it comes down to it though they are going to need some extra time, and whoever is putting the pressure on will come to a compromise - not give them as much time as they need, but give them time to try and fix any "game breaking" bugs (at the expense of some higher level content, in the hope they can patch that in before anyone reaches it)

yea i can almost 100% garrentee it will get delayed

Originally posted by Killershiver

yea i can almost 100% garrentee it will get delayed

And on what basis do you make this assumption? Please, humour us. Have you got a "friend" in beta or something?

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
1. The advertisement for multi-lingual people for work, quite possibly to help the translating, recently.

Isn't kind of late to hire new people if you are in a "polishing" state?

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
2. an unfounded rumour that I heard today saying the release date might be brought forward to start of march'08 - although personally i wont put much stock in that.

Can't argue with rumors.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
3. The fact that they are actively inviting people to general beta - in large numbers, and putting the word out

They started to "putting the word out" long time ago and beta testers we invited more than 6 months ago.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
4. The announcement of a huge press / taking the game on tour / showing etc in January (was in Athelan's radio interview, plus also mentioned in latest competition)

5. The recent hands on showing for press (mmorpg.com, warcy, etc)
..

Whole 2007 was filled with press releases and shows, but they still could not make the October date.

I'm just slowly losing faith in AoC

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Originally posted by D|CE

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Originally posted by Baikal

...
The recent Jorgen Tharldsen interview ( Found Here ) gives me some confidence that they have the right reasons for making the decisions that they have.
...

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Do you remember what they were saying this summer? Same stuff. Even one day prior to the delay.

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Hold your breath..what did they do when they felt it needed to be delayed? They delayed it! WOW...novel concept! So your point with that comment is what exactly? It means they'll delay it now?

Originally posted by D|CE

 

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
1. The advertisement for multi-lingual people for work, quite possibly to help the translating, recently.

Isn't kind of late to hire new people if you are in a "polishing" state?

Translations aren't such a big thing. 

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
2. an unfounded rumour that I heard today saying the release date might be brought forward to start of march'08 - although personally i wont put much stock in that.

Can't argue with rumors.

 I hold no stock in this to be honest.

 

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
3. The fact that they are actively inviting people to general beta - in large numbers, and putting the word out

They started to "putting the word out" long time ago and beta testers we invited more than 6 months ago.

They are telling us in the last few weeks specific numbers, also mentioning it more in recent interviews and forum posts. I've noticed the increase. We are talking amount here, no amounts were mentioned specifically previous to the last 3 weeks. 

 

Originally posted by AmazingAvery
4. The announcement of a huge press / taking the game on tour / showing etc in January (was in Athelan's radio interview, plus also mentioned in latest competition)

5. The recent hands on showing for press (mmorpg.com, warcy, etc)
..

Whole 2007 was filled with press releases and shows, but they still could not make the October date.

No they couldn't make the release date, but we are hearing new things in hands on reports in the last few weeks, again. That was then, this is now, and there is a difference in amount of detail released.

I have a brand new car for your christmas present, I've brought it, you will get it, we just have to wait for it to be delievered. But we also understand that the last part can take a bit of time, but we are happy in knowing that we will get the car, even if it is a bit late. We heard some bad news, the frieght that the car was on, was involved in a crash, our car got smashed up. So we have to wait again for the insurance to deal with it and the manufacturor to send another one out. We wait still knowing that it IS coming and it will be delievered. This time we keep our fingers crossed it will be delivered on time, but we can kinda understand that these things happen. So as we wait again, we know if there is a problem in transit again, we are familiar with the process.

Problem is here, the majority of the people haven't pre ordered the game yet, if you havent, you not loosing anything, its not taking your time up. Your not dealing with the equivilent of the 'insurer' or the 'manufacturor'. The best things come to those that wait. If your the impatient type, think on those poor folks who are waiting for Darkfall beta announced 3 yrs back.

So the question is, whats your threshold for waiting here. Most people seeing how much more stuff is being released lately can sense its nearer completion more than any other time during their 'follow' time,

The end is near!

 

 

I'm just slowly losing faith in AoC

I really don't see AoC being delayed again. Imo it will release on March 25 even if it isn't ready and I have every faith it will be.

Here's a quote from the Allakhazam hands on report.

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All in all, I’m really surprised and pleased about Age of Conan and how far along it is considering the closeness to release. Are there some bugs still? Of course, even if some are quite funny (see the dancing NPC above). Does the game still need some polish? Of course it does or it would have been released already. However, for being only four months from release the game is remarkable polished and done. I don’t know if they will need all that time, but considering the release state of some games and the current state of this game, I applaud them for taking the time to make sure they have it right and put a nice polish on things.

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It should make Q2 '08; after all, everything is already in and devs are only polishing content since August '07. It will be a great game.

They should just wait till Xmas this year it w\might be ready by then.

Actually Xmas does not sound that bad. IMHO, it is the best time to release any game.