Alle fans (ik alleen op deze site geloof ik ) kunnen in de lucht springen, want de eerste beta-fase van Anarchy-Online is begonnen. In deze fase zullen er helaas maar 100 beta-testers worden aangenomen, allemaal afkomstig uit Scandinavie De volgende fase zal nog eens 500 testers toelaten, van de hele wereld. In totaal hebben er al 50.000 mensen zich aangemeld voor de beta, en er zijn inmiddels al meer dan 50 fansites. Hier de pre release die vanmorgen in m'n mailboxje lag:"Funcom is entering an extremely interesting market with tremendous opportunities," says Funcom president Andre Backen. "The ma ive role playing games have reached a level of sophistication and complexity unheard of only a couple of years ago, and the development continues with rapid speed. We believe that Anarchy Online stand out both in terms of graphical performance and actual game-play when the game enters the market. Never before have people been able to enter a fully detailed science fiction world in full 3D where you can interact with thousands of players," Backen explains.

"It is incredible that so many people are involved in the community even before we have started the Anarchy Online marketing campaign," Backen comments. "This has of course given our development team a tremendous boost, and we have also taken the nece ary steps to ensure that our organizational and server infrastructure meets the expected heavy demands in the last phase of the beta test.

" The external beta test will be executed in four phases. The first phase, being presently launched, involves a limited number of external testers. As the beta test progre , more testers will be accepted to the playing field. In the forth and final phase, thousands of gamers will take part to test game functionality and server scalability and redundancy during ma ive pre ure. Funcom will involve the community in every part of the beta test because of their unique experience with these types of games.