"Release dates"

[m10bob]

When Matrixgames was still in its' infancy, it erred in giving release dates well in advance, but they also provided an open forum for the players, and every time a good idea was mentioned, Matrixgames tried to work it into the product which was going to be released. Unfortunately, every time they did this the release date was being shoved back.
The players themselves were causing this, (even though the end product was still going to be an improvement over the original item.)
We old timers saw this on the SPWAW forums several times, and we (players) finally admitted to our being involved in the continual delay in the release of Campaign CD's, patches, etc.
While all of us clamour for AE, (and a few even drool at the thought), we will do well to remember that with every good idea we propose, we might in turn be delaying that which we desire, (game-wise)..[;)]

[langley]

Good Point! I suspect this will not stop people asking for the release date of AE. Like a number of us I am one of the people who drools over this site most nights in hope of finding more information on AE.
(1) At which point will AE not be open to new ideas?
(2) Have we got to this stage yet?
(3) Will new ideas be introduced into patches for AE.
 
Many thanks for your Time.
 
MJT

[jwilkerson]

I don't know that there will ever be a point at which the AE team are not open to ideas.

As to the initial release, we're pretty much locked down already, if we find an issue in testing, we fix it, even if this means design issue. But we're already developing the list for the first couple of patches.

[Mike Solli]

Care to share any of them? [:D]

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Care to share any of them? [:D]

That might be a first - releasing the bug list BEFORE the game!

[m10bob]

Well Joe....if we were allowed to pre-order, it would 1.Give Matrixgames a general idea of the interest, 2. Provide a financial adjustment to the corporate coffers for this (and perhaps future endeavours), and 3. Give the players a better idea of how long we will be waiting.
(On this last, I was one of those kids who stayed awake most of Christmas Eve waiting for the crunching of snow on the rooftop, and was up like a shot at 0400 for the toys!)[:D]

[Terminus]

You forgot 4) Will lead to unsurpassed whining if we don't deliver when the pre-ordering people think we should...[:D]

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

You forgot 4) Will lead to unsurpassed whining if we don't deliver when the pre-ordering people think we should...[:D]

(Are we there yet?)

[Terminus]

Don't make me turn this car around, young man![;)]

[Grotius]

Has Matrix ever considered allowing people to pay to play the beta? Stardock does that with its "Galactic Civilizations" games. You "preorder" (at pretty much full price), which gives you a right to download and play the beta, and you're encouraged (though not required) to file bug reports. In this way, Stardock gets a massive influx of testers plus early revenue, and GalCiv fanatics get to play the game early -- and understand that they're playing a beta, not a final release, so they complain less about bugs. I paid for the beta of the most recent expansion to GalCiv2. When the game is released, the paying testers upgrade to the release version for no charge.

The downside of this business model is that the testers don't sign an NDA, but so much of AE seems public anyway, I don't know whether this is a big concern.

It may be too late in the process for this game, but I'd encourage Matrix to think about it for other games. You get money earlier; we get the games earlier.

[Tophat1815]

So is everything still on for an Origins release?

[Terminus]

Err, fairly certain that nobody's ever mentioned or promised an Origins release. Matrix NEVER releases release dates in advance, you KNOW this.

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Has Matrix ever considered allowing people to pay to play the beta? Stardock does that with its "Galactic Civilizations" games. You "preorder" (at pretty much full price), which gives you a right to download and play the beta, and you're encouraged (though not required) to file bug reports. In this way, Stardock gets a massive influx of testers plus early revenue, and GalCiv fanatics get to play the game early -- and understand that they're playing a beta, not a final release, so they complain less about bugs. I paid for the beta of the most recent expansion to GalCiv2. When the game is released, the paying testers upgrade to the release version for no charge.

The downside of this business model is that the testers don't sign an NDA, but so much of AE seems public anyway, I don't know whether this is a big concern.

It may be too late in the process for this game, but I'd encourage Matrix to think about it for other games. You get money earlier; we get the games earlier.

That sort of works against the whole concept of beta testing. Bad idea.

[Tophat1815]

No,no,no,no,no...............some Grand-poooh-Ba,did make mention of Origins. I then stuck it away in my things to remember and reasons to go to Origins file. Its under 2 months away,so we'll just let time tell then.

[Terminus]

Well, WitP was released at Origins back in '04, wasn't it? AE won't come out until we're done with it, and nobody has said anything about it coming out at Origins '08.

[jwilkerson]

Speculating about release dates is not something we on the AE team can do. Release dates are determined by Matrix.

[Tophat1815]

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

Speculating about release dates is not something we on the AE team can do. Release dates are determined by Matrix.

Not a problem,I'm not speculating,just clarifying what was brought up Dec/Jan as I recall it. Seems Terminus don't think it means what I think it means so I'll wait until Origins and see if I'm pleasantly surprised.[;)]

[treespider]

We can always say we are one day closer to release...tomorrow we will be one day closer to release.

[vettim89]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Err, fairly certain that nobody's ever mentioned or promised an Origins release. Matrix NEVER releases release dates in advance, you KNOW this.

I for one prefer it this way. Having gone through some delays in releases for other games (some of them quite long I might add), I would rather have the hard release date when that time is determined. The problem with projected release dates is that they are just that - Projected

[bradfordkay]

ORIGINAL: treespider

We can always say we are one day closer to release...tomorrow we will be one day closer to release.

and shorter of breath...



I'm pretty sure that no one officially quoted an Origins release, but the speculation among all the old timers here ran in that direction. That's probably what you recall, tophat.