Global Agenda doesn’t actually launch until the beginning of February, but I received a nice treat in the mail the other week, the Limited Edition. It’s not because I am some well known blogger, on a special list, or friendly with the developer. The reason I received the game nearly two weeks before the servers go live is just because Hi-Rez Studios is smart.
Hi-Rez has spearheaded a multitude of issues by delivering the game to players early – I am not the only one to have the game in hand. The most obvious is that the arrival of the game itself, and all of the extras included within, will create a bit of (hopefully positive) media buzz ahead of the official release. That’s something all video games would enjoy. The inclusion of beta access in the box only adds to this. While waiting for the live servers I’ve taken the opportunity to get a handful of hours in with each character class. Sure, I could have done that as part of the beta that’s been running, but I didn’t bother until the game was in hand for some reason.
Speaking of the beta process, I think it’s safe to assume that the developer is watching who’s in the beta, who’s a pre-orderer and who went from beta to having a purchased copy. By doing so the company could estimate how many players are signing up for the game, as opposed to being beta participants. Thus extrapolating what kind of server load can be expected on February 1, 2010. Hopefully this negates any over or underpopulated server issues that can decimate a game’s launch.
Being ready for that fateful day may be the best perk of all. By having the game already installed, patched and ready to go, everyone should be on the same playing field. No shipping delays, missed UPS delivery persons or other shenanigans to force your friends to leave you behind, never to catch up.
/me cleans his gun, readies his jetback and polishes his mines in anticipation.
It’d be nice to see other MMOG getting in our hands a few days early, don’t you think?
Reading this really makes me think that all MMOs should sell/ship the game a week before servers go live. So long as it is blatantly mode obvious that the game does not go live until a certain date, this could help a lot.
@Qix
I agree. I was so pissed when WoW originally came out and I had to wait like 3 days to get my copy from an e-tailer. It taught me to never by an MMOG from an online company again, assuming I wanted it day 1.
It seems obvious though, games go gold weeks in advance, why not just ship them and make it clear that the servers go live on X date.