2010 Beta Date Inquiry: Sc2gdf Thread and Beta Timeline Discussion

[Santrega]

Edit- ***Answer given for this topic***

He was talking about beta in general and not specifically about a Russian beta.

About Mike Morhaime contradicting that. Where did you read it? Don't remember him saying anything other that the development team is working hard towards beta - which they in fact are. This does not contradict Chris' statement though.

[Original Post Below]


I have made a thread requesting clarification on whether Chris Sigaty's words, which basically stated beta will be coming in 2010, are true for all regions, or just Russia.

This is the thread: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html...02638&sid=3000

Here is what I wrote:

Hello,

I'm not asking for a specific date, but I do think that if Russia deserves to know the plans for beta, than the United States should also deserve to know. If Chris Sigaty's comments about wanting to get beta out next year in 2010 was for Russia's beta, please just tell us "That comment was for Russia's beta". If it's true for all countries, please tell us that. It does not have to go any further than that.

I don't think its fair that a representative directly contradicts the comments by Michael Morhaime a few days later in a different country, and the community is left to wonder about it.

Thank you,

- Santrega

Two Goal's of this thread

The thread on SC2GDF

I made the above thread at the sc2gdf in hopes to get at least a one sentence response clarifying the comments by Chris Sigaty. I hope that all of you will go to that thread, and post a very respectful and thoughtful post supporting the effort for that response from a blizzard rep, cydra or karune, or Dustin browder, or anyone.

Please be respectful, and make a thoughtful request for the information asked for in the original post. Also, please don't respond to the trolls that are going to undoubtedly enter the thread and try to mess with you.

The Reason for this thread

Here is my reasoning for why I don't believe the comment from Chris Sigaty is for the United States, or the initial phase of beta, but rather for just Russia:

Clearly Chris Sigaty, maybe without any authority from blizzard, felt it necessary to tell that Russian game expo that they are looking to release beta in 2010. This is a comment that directly contradicts Michael Morhaime's comments during that november 5th conference call that said the game is on schedule for a second quarter release, and the promise during blizzcon that the beta would start this year. If the beta is planned for a 4-6 month timetable, of course you have to plan for the beta to go the entire 6 months.

The fact that he says a late second quarter release says to me that the game needs to be out before June, as June starts the third quarter. You have to plan for the worst case scenario, in this case being 6 months. So, if what we heard from Chris Sigaty in Russia is true for all of us, this means that a couple of days after Michael Morhaime said they are on track, something happened to change that.

6 months from january first is 3rd quarter, which is not what Michael Morhaime said during the conference call.

Additional Proof that Russia is not going to be a part of the initial phase:

http://www.starcraft2.com/beta-faq.xml

When does the StarCraft II beta test start?

We don’t have an exact start date to share at this time, but note that when it does begin, we will be adding additional regions to the beta test in phases. North America, Australia, and New Zealand will be the first regions to begin beta testing, and other regions will follow afterward in phases. We will have more information to share about all of these phases in the future.

The reason for setting up the beta in regional phases is that it takes time to set up and configure our testing infrastructure in each area. Bringing up one region at a time makes the overall testing process for StarCraft II and Battle.net more efficient from a development perspective, making the test more effective, and allowing us to complete the game more quickly than if we attempted to start the beta test in all regions at the same time. We will share more information about the start dates for the beta in different regions at a later date.

Here is the discussion topic for this thread:

Do you think its possible for them to plan a timeline, and not prepare for the worst case scenario of a 6 month beta? Do you think they can release the game in the 2nd quarter and start the beta after January 1st, 2010? Do you think nothing has changed and Sigaty was referring to Russia, or that something has changed and now beta is pushed back for all?

[Gifted]

While I commend your efforts to get a blue response, I also have to mention that in our news we've also kept the information as impartial as possible. The possibility of a russian date being specified instead of a world wide announcement is something our team put a LOT of effort trying to find out. Going as far as trying to find every russian fansite that was present and see if one of them quoted the phrase differently... even a single word. If we had anything further to report, please feel free to understand it would be up already.

Best of luck on this attempt of communication, here's to hoping it bears fruit.
/sagenod

[Santrega]

While I commend your efforts to get a blue response, I also have to mention that in our news we've also kept the information as impartial as possible. The possibility of a russian date being specified instead of a world wide announcement is something our team put a LOT of effort trying to find out. Going as far as trying to find every russian fansite that was present and see if one of them quoted the phrase differently... even a single word. If we had anything further to report, please feel free to understand it would be up already.

Best of luck on this attempt of communication, here's to hoping it bears fruit.
/sagenod

Honestly, I dont think those at the event are making it very easy on you guys. However, I still believe they were interested in their beta, and when they will get the game, not when beta will start in other countries.

I don't blame you guys for not having the info available, in fact, I really do believe you guys have done everything you could to find the information. I hope that a combined effort of this community might at least get a one sentence clarification, but it will take people actually bumping the thread and supporting it.

[Nicol Bolas]

Do you think its possible for them to plan a timeline, and not prepare for the worst case scenario of a 6 month beta?

The beta will last as long as they want it to. If they want to run a 4 month beta, then they will do so. I don't think it's a good idea, but it's their decision.

Do you think they can release the game in the 2nd quarter and start the beta after January 1st, 2010?

There are many companies that define quarters in different ways. Which ones are 1st, second, etc are different, and when they're measured can change.

Do you think nothing has changed and Sigaty was referring to Russia, or that something has changed and now beta is pushed back for all?

Changed from when? The last we were told about Beta was that it would be out in the summer, which is well over.

Stop trying to read more into this than what it says.

[Pick]

Changed from when? The last we were told about Beta was that it would be out in the summer, which is well over.

Changed from Blizzcon when Morhaime said he expected beta to start in 2009.

Thanks for your efforts Santrega. Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect a blue response.

[Blazur]

Somebody send them a Tweet. These days they seem more apt to use Twitter over the SC2GDF to relay information. Can't say I blame them...

[Kimera757]

6 months from january first is 3rd quarter, which is not what Michael Morhaime said during the conference call.

That conference call was a while back, IIRC. (I could be horribly wrong.) Anyone have a timestamp? Still, Blizzard could just be wrong. After all, Blizzard seemed pretty sure beta would launch this summer, even saying that after it looked like it couldn't happen.

Here is the discussion topic for this thread:

Do you think its possible for them to plan a timeline, and not prepare for the worst case scenario of a 6 month beta? Do you think they can release the game in the 2nd quarter and start the beta after January 1st, 2010? Do you think nothing has changed and Sigaty was referring to Russia, or that something has changed and now beta is pushed back for all?

IMO, as of today (with the accounts merge), battle.net is ready and so will launch "reasonably soon". Could be a month or three. I suspect that Blizzard has a timeline now. Unfortunately, I do not understand how battle.net is programmed; I don't know if merging WoW with battle.net has much to do with StarCraft II and Diablo III. I'm just hoping it does. I believe there's nothing else delaying StarCraft II; while they wanted to work on single-player, they're almost done (admittedly based on vague comments from videos) and it's not like every single member of the Blizzard team was working on just battle.net during the delay.

I suspect the beta will be approximately five months once it launches, just like with Warcraft III. There'll probably be lengthy rants, discussions and rage over things like macro mechanics and frankly, the first month will probably be useless as most of the gamers will either be using StarCraft I strats or there'll be newbies who never played StarCraft I (so don't really know what they're doing... somehow I doubt there'll be challenges and other such training tools in the beta).

Did anyone play Warcraft III's beta? Did it have an AMM? Seems the big thing nowadays with beta tests. IIRC Dawn of War II's final beta report said their AMM sucked (the typical game length was short, because pros kept getting paired with noobs). If I were them, I would have prolonged the beta until they fixed their AMM.

Somebody send them a Tweet. These days they seem more apt to use Twitter over the SC2GDF to relay information. Can't say I blame them...

How long will the good tweeting last?

[Santrega]

That conference call was a while back, IIRC. (I could be horribly wrong.) Anyone have a timestamp? Still, Blizzard could just be wrong. After all, Blizzard seemed pretty sure beta would launch this summer, even saying that after it looked like it couldn't happen.

http://investor.activision.com/discl...?eventid=73643

It was november 5th, 2009. A little more than halfway through the audio file, morhaime starts to talk about blizzard.

Somebody send them a Tweet. These days they seem more apt to use Twitter over the SC2GDF to relay information. Can't say I blame them...

I have a friend who has sent them numerous tweets, with no response. :-/

[ArcherofAiur]

"We are currently working to update several portions of the #StarCraft2 website which are almost complete."
http://twitter.com/Starcraft


Just twitted. You should ask them since they seem to be online.

[sandwich_bird]

I really hope we get an answer but I doubt any staff will tak the time to respond before the thread get spammed by all those idiots on SC2GDF.