Beta "practically" Confirmed 3-4 months

[RedPineApple]

In the latest Blizzcast, they sat down and discussed the possibility of not even adding the map editor for the beta. On top of that, they reinforced that beta would be 3-4 months in length. They really seem to be pressured into this Q2 release. I can't say if this is good or bad considering beta still needs quite a bit of work, but it is interesting none the less.

What interested me the most was the fact that the overall tone has changed. I remember not to far back Dustin stated that beta would be 4-6 months. Now they are talking about THREE months in this podcast. I know it is Blizzard and they will always do unpredictable things, but this tone has been reinforced several times since the announcement of beta @ the conference call.

So, expect a release date announcement soon I would assume.

[ManjiSanji]

I think they're being overly optimistic, or accepting that they could make a lot more balance changes post-release.

[limE]

As much as we've seen these past weeks, the game could be done in 3-4 months.
I don't have the beta myself, but theres not alot of bugs if im right?

[PosImpos]

From what I've seen and heard, the main issues are ones of balance; the only other ones have to do with lackluster sound effects. I haven't heard of any game breaking bugs or crash issues. Of course, I'm sure many more of those will crop up as soon as they starting including more people in the beta - especially those with less than optimal computers.

Still, assuming single player is mostly finished, it seems this game doesn't need a whole lot more tweaks other than balance stuff to be ready for release. The game wont' really be very balanced until 6 months or a year (maybe more) after it's released, so I don't think Blizzard will worry about having perfect balance by release time. They'll just want the game to be stable and polished and they'll want to at least be satisfied with the units / abilities / tech trees currently implemented.

Release in May or June sounds plausible to me.

[dynamiK-]

I doubt they get it out in Q2. I'd be satisfied if it was sometime by the end of July... Ah, can't wait for it.

[Hav0x]

In all honesty they could release it today and the multiplayer would be pretty balanced.

Going from 4-6 month projected beta time to 3-4 months is easily explainable by the delay for battle.net. They obviously did a lot of balancing in that time (Chrono boost added, lurker removed etc.)

[GnaReffotsirk]

Do-able, imho. With pro gamers along with them, this isn't very unlikely.

[PosImpos]

(Chrono boost added, lurker removed etc.)

I'm still expecting them to add the Lurker back in, or some other unit. The Zerg feel like they don't have enough units (to me anyway). I think they took the Lurker out to tweak it until they felt confident enough to put it back in (I think they recently said it wasn't being used enough).

[dreadmourn]

Based on the pod cast I have to agree with red here, currently their main issue is balance especially the numbers and its not a major issue the only major problem that might lengthen beta period would be the Battlenet.

[Alex]

I think they are capable of releasing it in Q2.
As everyone said, they just need to fix a few balance issues, and perhaps finish all the sound effects.
That's achievable in 3-4 months.