After the open beta not being really open because of the three day FilePlanet exclusive offer, we now have an open beta that's not really open because of a lack of activation keys. I find ironic the fact that Starforce is causing headaches to Heroes players, but not in the way that was expected. To Ubisoft's defense, I can understand that they didn't expect the beta to be so popular: the beta client has been downloaded 80,000 times on FilePlanet only and is still in fourth place on the site's What's Hot, after having held the first place for a little while. People love to play games for free, should it be a demo, a beta or a freeware title, and the Heroes V beta was released just at the right time.

As a consequence, a special offer on Jolt didn't last very long. The 100 keys the site had to give away were gone in no time. Meanwhile, on eBay, an auction for a beta key ended with a price of $42, nearly as much as what the final game will be worth (and the lucky seller won't even have to drive to the post office). On various forums, people are begging for unused keys at every opportunity. All this craziness shows that fans are really serious about trying out the game. It looks like releasing a demo of the game will be a good idea.