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Beta Test
From Hellgatewiki.com
The Hellgate: London beta test is set to begin in early/mid September, 2007. It will be a very quick beta test for an MMORPG, with the game set to hit stores on Halloween, October 31, 2007. It will also be a very large beta test, with numerous major online retailers bundling invitations with pre-orders, especially pre-orders for the Collector's Edition.
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Beta Test Date
There is no official date for the start of the beta test. It was expected to start in July or August 2007, but as of early September the wait continues. In early September EBGames added a note to their HGL:CE pre-order page that the beta test would begin on September 17th, 2007. This date has not been confirmed by Flagship.
Pre-Order Hellgate: London now and get an exclusive Beta program invitation, a faction’s poster, access to the Founder’s Offer subscription upgrade and…get the GameStop exclusive in-game item: The Lava Dye Kit! Customize the look of your armor with the Lava Dye Kit. Offer available online and in-store. Please provide a valid email address when ordering. Beta codes and instructions will be emailed prior to the 9/17/07 start date. Supplies are limited.
An early September news item on IGN states that the beta test will include the first three acts (out of five).
Hey, did you know Hellgate: London's beta phase launches soon? It'll run right up to a few weeks before the game's launch on Halloween this year and include the first three of five Acts. At an EA fall showcase event, the opening level of the DX9 version of the game was on display. Most notable was the framerate, which seemed to hold steady as we blasted demons, a change from versions past.
More details should be revealed very soon.
Beta Test History
Flagship long hoped to begin the beta test in late 2006.
"We intend to be starting beta testing sometime this year, so we are certainly on track with our expectations of the development of the game."
--Bill Roper, February 2006
"I think the game is moving along alright. People are really focused on adding new content now, which is always great. As to whether we will be done or not by this year, I unfortunately cannot say. There'll definitely be a beta this year, however."
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006
That didn't happen. In late 2006 there were several comments made that a private, "Friends and Family" Alpha test would start around the end of the year. That didn't happen either, and the alpha didn't actually get underway until early June 2007. However, a Mythos (Official site. Unofficial site.) friends and family alpha test began in March 2007 and continued into April, and it was theoretically serving much the same purpose (breaking in Ping0) that a limited Hellgate: London test would have.
In late May 2007 Bill Roper announced that a beta test would begin in Korea in July 2007. There's been no word on a date or schedule for a US beta test as of yet, though it's assumed one will begin shortly after the alpha ends. It had better, since Flagship is still sticking to their "Summer 2007" release window, which means September 30th at the latest. Most beta tests for large MMORPGs take months. Hellgate: London isn't that sprawling a game, but even assuming the beta test ran smoothly, they would still need at least a couple of months to get all the kinks ironed out, which means it would almost have to start by mid-July. And that assumes they don't need to spend a month after the full beta in a limited open beta/stress test to burn in the server hosting hardware under heavy user loads.
The Alpha Test
The Hellgate: London alpha test began in mid-2007. The first invites were sent during the first week of June, shortly after the official Alpha page was added to HellgateLondon.com. There were only a few dozen friends and family testing the game from the very start, and they had a fairly limited amount of game to play with, at that point. More was added over time, and on July 19, 2007, Flagship sent emails to most HGL fansite webmasters telling them they could submit 10 emails who would receive alpha invites. In early August more invites began to filter out, mostly to people who had submitted their emails to alpha test Mythos, Flagship's other game.
As of early September, the alpha test is still running, still expanding gradually, but expected to end very soon, with the beta due to start any minute.
Alpha Test History
In late May 2007, Flagship announced that the closed, "Friends and Family" alpha test would begin in early June, 2007. Just days later http://alpha.hellgatelondon.com went live, with a login and a short welcome message:
Hello, and welcome to the Hellgate: London friends and family alpha test!
You may have already received your invitation email to the alpha test containing your unique code to create an account and download the game. If you did not, be sure to check your junk mail filters and inboxes, as it may have been sent there by mistake.
For those of you who came here on accident, don’t worry – the test will open up to more people over time as the kinks get ironed out. Until then, please check out more Hellgate goodness at the official website.
Thanks for stopping by, and we hope to see you online soon!
No additional information about the game can be found on the Alpha page, with the alpha testing forums and minimum requirements and other linked information all behind the log in wall. The NDA is visible, however, and it's quite iron clad, prohibiting alpha testers from even acknowledging that they are in the test, much less releasing any information or images from it.
Who is on the "Friends and Family" list? Ivan commented on that in late 2006.
inHellgate.de: Who are friends? Are Fansites friends?
Ivan: Dude, I have no idea. I honestly don't set that up or control it. Friends and family is pretty much whoever the founders decide, me thinks. I'm trying to get some fans in, though.
inHellgate.de: When will the community get more info about that?
Ivan: I don't know that either. We have a milestone on December 20. Hopefully I'll know more then.
inHellgate.de: What kind of milestone you refer to?
Ivan: Milestones are arbitrary dates set by project leads within our company. They set deadlines for features and content to be implemented into the game.
