Just pre-ordered...take a look...

[DecoyTPH]

Originally posted by Rantz
On MOO3 notes, we have an internal date that everyone is working from and that we expect to see it released on, but we're not going to say anything until the game is actually in replication.

Nostradamus predicted a release date for MOO3, so its alright that you're not sharing. View my Prognotications post to see it. Chantz might be the most-qualified individual to decipher that quatrain.

[Asmodean]

I remember Rantz saying that he would be shocked to the piont of near suicide if the game was postponed untill late february. Now that doesn't seem that unlikely after all.

Asmodean

[H Tower]

Originally posted by Asmodean
I remember Rantz saying that he would be shocked to the piont of near suicide if the game was postponed untill late february. Now that doesn't seem that unlikely after all.

you mean suicide?

[DarthVeda]

Forget it... this thing ain't shippin till february at the earliest.

Think about it... it hasn't even gone gold yet and the playtesters are still going to be running around with it this week and probably into next week. It will be at least the 20th before we get a gold announcement and probably another three weeks before the game makes it to the shelves.

Also I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the game might get canned entirely. Anybody remember Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans?

WarCraft Adventures was to be Blizzard's first adventure title. Taking the role of Thrall, the player would venture around Azeroth solving puzzles and completeling quests. Thrall, an Orc captured and raised by a Human, would roam Azeroth in search of his heritage, and eventaul strive to take control of the Hordes. Many thought that it would serve to bridge the stoyrlines between WarCraft 2 Beyond the Dark Portal and the eventual WarCraft 3. However, Blizzard decided to cancel the project before completion, saying that the game wasn't living up to their standards. Basically, the technology in the genre was advancing, and to keep with the times Blizzard would have had to start from scratch again.

The game and all 84,000+ animation cells are now locked away at Blizzard, never to see the light of day again...

Although I think this project has a sunnier outlook... but who knows?

[booklord]

The circumstances with Warcraft adventures was different. That was a quality issue with the game content. Rather than release a game that would give Blizzard bad reviews they decided to scrap it instead.

Moo3 seems mired with a few nasty bugs that are keep causin the game to fail regression testing. All the beta testers seem to be giving good reviews so I doubt they'll stop production now.

Now back last spring when they showed their infamous cut list and delayed the game.... That appeared to be a quality issue. Some aspects of the game didn't work out because the AIs weren't up to task or it needlessly complicated gameplay. That was much closer to the Warcraft Adventures situation.

[PlacidDragon]

Originally posted by DarthVeda
Forget it... this thing ain't shippin till february at the earliest.

Saw this snippet at www.avault.com today :

"The first official words on Master of Orion 3 in 2003 sound a lot like last year's final words: "almost ready - but not quite." Publisher Infogrames reports that Quicksilver has completed their move to new offices and all the testers are back onboard and hard at work. In an effort to cut down on the regression testing phase - which normally takes up to three weeks - they've hired more testers and are now estimating that it'll take only one week. An Infogrames producer commented in the game's public forum that they would release MOO3 only when "every known and documented crash bug and save game corruption bug is out of the game." The only concrete word on its release date is sometime before Feb. 28."

[DarthVeda]

with a grain of salt

[Kc7mxo]

and it can take up to a month after a game goes gold for it to be distributed anyway. . . which is why i'm rather depressed.

[kalbear]

It _CAN_ take that long, but it's doubtful it will. IG already has the boxes, manuals, and CD covers printed out. They're sitting in a warehouse awaiting gold copy. They know where all those boxes are going, have pre-paid shipping, and it's basically as soon as they can fill those boxes.

I suspect no more than 10 days from Gold to grubby hands. Probably closer to 5 days for places like EB, who have, as far as I can tell, a teleportation device that beams copies of games into poorly-organized shelves and discount bins.

[H Tower]

its disturbing they have the manuals printed when they haven't finished making the game yet...

[Harry Seldon]

Originally posted by H Tower
its disturbing they have the manuals printed when they haven't finished making the game yet...

What's even more disturbing is the strat guide has been out for a month now.

Chapter 5: Successfully Using Imperial Focus Points

[Asmodean]

At least we can hope that the IFP's are out of the manual.

Asmodean

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by Asmodean
I remember Rantz saying that he would be shocked to the point of near suicide if the game was postponed untill late february.

I guess to achieve that he would have to stick his fingers into the mains socket voluntarily?

[H Tower]

of course now they're claiming the game to be ready for feb28th. does everyone have their april fools day jokes ready?

[Rantz]

Originally posted by H Tower
of course now they're claiming the game to be ready for feb28th. does everyone have their april fools day jokes ready?

as things progress currently, it'll be on the shelves way before Feb 28.

way before

and for those curious, replication to store can be done inside of a week.

stay tuned...