Is it close to being complete?

[King Imp]

I just received my copy of Game Informer the other day and they are already previewing this game.

Just curious if anyone has heard anything on how the progress is coming along and if we're close to a release.

[Neidhaart]

It's probably from the press-event they held in march or something like that.

[Kalah]

That's it, yes. These stronghold images were also (prematurely) leaked from such a publication. My sources tell me straight out that we are nowhere near release; the game is still in alpha. I would guess somewhere closer to Christmas.

[King Imp]

That looks damn good for an alpha then.

I remember when I got my hands on the alpha of Heroes V. It looked nothing like what the final product became.

[cjlee]

It doesn't matter whether this game is genuinely near completion. It is Ubisoft policy to sell at the beta stage, it seems. They are already marketing the thing and doing preorders.

As for beta testing I predict it will be done by the usual gang of idiots who buy Ubishit products without waiting for reviews and bug fixes.

[Kalah]

While most of us will usually wait until we hear reviews and see some signs of quality - as we do with most products - pre-orders can give the producers a rough idea of the interest level. That can give them a clue where to direct PR campaigns, where to prepare distribution networks for high sales (i.e. where to send more copies of the game) etc. Lots of people are doing this nowadays; the movie industry probably being the biggest hitter.

[mr.hackcrag]

I'm just surprised that they are announcing pre-orders when the game looks so inadequate at this stage. It gives me a feeling that they're going to do another rush job + patch later b.s. we've seem time and again.

[Cristian]

The cosed beta is another problem. Is Ubisoft a new Blizzard and is Heroes 7 a new Starcraft? If they had any good marketers at Ubisoft, after a shameful buggy game as Heroes 6, they would have pushed out a public beta, to convince all potential buyers / fans that the new Heroes is very well made. But no... Ubisoft is now trying to make money out of beta testing.

100% I'm going to buy the game after it comes out, as I also did with the Heroes 6 buggy editions, but I fear for a new disgrace of a game. The stupidly high requirements for an Unreal Engine 3 game and the closed beta are bad signs in this direction

[Panda Tar]

This franchise has tainted my likeness to play even the older games. Dunno how that happened.

[mordredrs]

This one i'll only buy when it's ready and when it has inferno on it.

[Galaad]

If Inferno ever makes it in eventual expansion, let's hope we don't get two-headed "Cerberus" coming along a couple of zergs and blobs.

[DataPack]

If Inferno ever makes it in eventual expansion, let's hope we don't get two-headed "Cerberus" coming along a couple of zergs and blobs.

Only two heads? Pfft 3 heads or gtfo