We have come to a decision, not without much internal debate, that
instead of commercial release this Wednesday as planned we are going to
launch the game for playtesting first. We also believe that we owe the
community a thorough explanation for this last minute decisions, so the
reasons behind it are the following:

• While we have done a lot of internal testing for the game, the
  platform has been thoroughly field tested, and the game has also been
  tested by external partners, we have always felt that the game should be
  tested by the players and last checks corroborate this. Time however
  was not on our side.

• Secondarily, some of the reasons which caused us to slip from our
  original launch date last month are not yet fully resolved to our
  satisfaction and a bit more time is needed. For the record, what’s
  left shouldn’t take more than a few days longer.

• Being Greenlit on Steam so quickly was beyond our expectations, this
  success was 100% community driven and it showed us how important to the
  community this is. After evaluating the procedure needed for proper
  Steam integration, we realized that if we launch on schedule it would be
  impossible for us to launch with Steam.

Despite considering this a setback, we actually also consider it a
perfect opportunity to get the community involved directly in the fine
tuning of the game features before launching on Steam. We have been
working with the dream of making Darkfall Unholy Wars the best
competitive experience ever and lack of community feedback would have
been a missed opportunity. We also believe that a Steam launch can help
the game get the critical mass it needs to be as fun as it can possibly
be, and we feel it’s important to have the game tested more thoroughly
before this happens.

So now what?

• We’re launching a fully playable beta version of the game as soon as
  we get the build ready. We have a firm ETA for Monday,December 17th. By
  beta version we mean the game will be running in debug mode so that we
  can quickly get valuable feedback from playtesting and we can identify
  and address issues as quickly as possible.

• Pre-orders get beta access; we’re making pre-orders available on Friday so you can download the game over the weekend.

• Some details regarding the pre-order: returning Darkfall players
  will get the game at the price of the subscription during pre-order. New
  players will get the game at a discount. Pre-orders get 30 days of
  game-time when the game launches, beta access for as long as that is
  live, plus you can reserve your character’s name. We will also explore
  offering a head start. Pre-order slots may be limited and will be
  throttled if needed.

• We can focus on playing and working with you to identify any bugs
  and imbalances and will continue working closely with our players to
  improve the game so that by the time the game launches it will be as
  perfect as possible. There will be developer – player interaction on
  issues that come up, and we want to keep developing a user-centric
  culture throughout the lifecycle of Darkfall Unholy Wars.

• We will also be working round the clock on getting the game ready
  for a Steam launch with all the Steam features we want integrated.

• The Darkfall Unholy Wars launch should happen as soon as we’re
  cleared to do a Steam launch, we assume that the game will be properly
  tested by then as well. Our estimate is January after the holidays. We
  will announce a specific launch date as soon as possible. We need to
  estimate the exact time it takes to integrate all the Steam features,
  and to assess what feedback we get from our playtesters.

We feel there are compelling arguments for us to take a little extra
time and to involve the community. The very amusing community insider
joke “we’ll do it live” is not how we prefer to do things, but in the
past we had been forced to by our circumstances or by external factors.

We regret the last minute announcement, we had to agree on this with
several parties and get approval from all our departments so we’ve been
agonizing over this since last week. We do appreciate your
understanding on this, it was not an easy or a pleasant decision for us
to make, especially at the last minute, and we feel badly that we’re not
true to our word even though everyone at Aventurine has been working
extremely hard for tomorrow’s planned release date. However, we also
feel that this is the best possible option for the game, for the
players, and we promise to make the best of it involving you as much as
possible in making Darkfall Unholy Wars reach the potential it deserves.

More information on the playtesting process and on the pre-orders,
will become available in separate announcements starting tomorrow. We’ll
also be happy to address your concerns and provide answers to your
questions.



Thank you for reading.

Source: Darkfall blog

Illwyn schrieb:

bad new but not suprising

Sad news indeed. Will ruin some of the fun, now that everyone will know all the great spots and what to do from day one!

Illwyn schrieb:

Pre-order slots may be limited and will be throttled if needed. what worries me the most

That's should only affect new customers. Guess they have to throttle in the beginning to avoid chaos at startercities in the beginning