The beleaguered beta for Metal Gear Online has been given a new, though tentative, start date.
Due to begin yesterday (21st April), the beta is now scheduled to kick off at midnight (Pacific Time) on Friday, April 25th - that's 8:00am on Saturday 26th over here.
This date remains subject to change, however. The Metal Gear Online teaser site tells us, "While the start is planned for the weekend, it may change due to unforeseen circumstances."
The beta has been a bit of a disaster, so far. Players who'd downloaded and installed the beta, launched on the "new" PlayStation store on Thursday, were greeted with a message to download the 1.01 patch. Patch downloaded and installed, players were informed that they'd need a Konami "Game ID" - and were forwarded to a sign-up website that was paint-dryingly slow.
After all that, excitement mounting for the beta to begin, the service was postponed due to huge demand overloading the game's servers. Who would have expected such massive demand for a highly anticipated release? Not Konami, apparently.
It's not all bad news, though - Brandon Laurino of Konami Online says on the PlayStation Blog, "To compensate for the delay, the MGO Beta period has been extended a week, now ending on May 11th."
He goes on to dish out a word to the wise, telling us, "Please note that your MGO Beta UPVCs (Unique Product Voucher Codes) will only be valid up until May 5th 2008, so please make sure to register them by then."
The delay was caused by large volumes of traffic destabilising the servers, but we're told that the MGO team in Japan is working "round the clock" to rectify the situation.
Sources: MGO Teaser Site, PlayStation Blog,
Due to begin yesterday (21st April), the beta is now scheduled to kick off at midnight (Pacific Time) on Friday, April 25th - that's 8:00am on Saturday 26th over here.
This date remains subject to change, however. The Metal Gear Online teaser site tells us, "While the start is planned for the weekend, it may change due to unforeseen circumstances."
The beta has been a bit of a disaster, so far. Players who'd downloaded and installed the beta, launched on the "new" PlayStation store on Thursday, were greeted with a message to download the 1.01 patch. Patch downloaded and installed, players were informed that they'd need a Konami "Game ID" - and were forwarded to a sign-up website that was paint-dryingly slow.
After all that, excitement mounting for the beta to begin, the service was postponed due to huge demand overloading the game's servers. Who would have expected such massive demand for a highly anticipated release? Not Konami, apparently.
It's not all bad news, though - Brandon Laurino of Konami Online says on the PlayStation Blog, "To compensate for the delay, the MGO Beta period has been extended a week, now ending on May 11th."
He goes on to dish out a word to the wise, telling us, "Please note that your MGO Beta UPVCs (Unique Product Voucher Codes) will only be valid up until May 5th 2008, so please make sure to register them by then."
The delay was caused by large volumes of traffic destabilising the servers, but we're told that the MGO team in Japan is working "round the clock" to rectify the situation.
Sources: MGO Teaser Site, PlayStation Blog,
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Comments
headcasephil 22 Apr 2008 12:35
1/5
all thow i am a bit pissed i am all so happy becasuse i show that if thay only expected x amout of people to download it and more has then thay now that it is going to sell well when the full game comes out allso as this all so means when the full game comes out thay are not going to have the same problem as we be able to use are ids that we made making demand for id web site less demaned and make it easyer for people how have not made one
Mung Spatula 22 Apr 2008 12:49
2/5
phil cort wrote:
all thow i am a bit pissed
No kidding.
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Bentley 22 Apr 2008 12:51
3/5
Phil... Firefox has a built-in spell-checker you know. Failing that, the Google toolbar also has one. They are really handy if you want anyone with more than half a brain to have any f**king idea of what you are trying to say.
Fair play to Konami for trying to give the layman a Beta test of such a popular title. Although the "compensation" that it lasts an extra week is hardly a great thing considering it has been delayed by almost that anyway... but as most gamers will surely be focusing on GTA IV from next week, at least demand on their servers will go down. Personally, I am not confident our Japanese chums have any idea how to "do" online gaming (see: GT5)... although having played CoD4 for the first time in ages last night, being stuck in rooms where nobody spoke English, I don't think anyone really knows how to get it "just right" at the moment.
Tip to developers: JUST COPY SOCOM 2'S LOBBY SYSTEM. Regional lobbies, by country- so you can play with people who speak your language, and minimise lag.
What NOT to do:
1. "Lump everyone together at random regardless of language and region"
2. "English, Americans and Australians all speak the same language so let's lump them all together".
3. Disregard comms and Friends lists entirely.
It's sooooo obvious. Oh, and having servers that can cope will help.
Fair play to Konami for trying to give the layman a Beta test of such a popular title. Although the "compensation" that it lasts an extra week is hardly a great thing considering it has been delayed by almost that anyway... but as most gamers will surely be focusing on GTA IV from next week, at least demand on their servers will go down. Personally, I am not confident our Japanese chums have any idea how to "do" online gaming (see: GT5)... although having played CoD4 for the first time in ages last night, being stuck in rooms where nobody spoke English, I don't think anyone really knows how to get it "just right" at the moment.
Tip to developers: JUST COPY SOCOM 2'S LOBBY SYSTEM. Regional lobbies, by country- so you can play with people who speak your language, and minimise lag.
What NOT to do:
1. "Lump everyone together at random regardless of language and region"
2. "English, Americans and Australians all speak the same language so let's lump them all together".
3. Disregard comms and Friends lists entirely.
It's sooooo obvious. Oh, and having servers that can cope will help.
scott 22 Apr 2008 17:37
4/5
mgo isnt on the playstation network anymore whats going on? will it be available on saturday? i hope so
Daz 22 Apr 2008 23:34
5/5
I was only going to use it as a filler till GTA4 comes out anyway.