Video Gaming 247 recently caught up with Mythic Entertainment's Paul Barnett, creative director for the upcoming Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMO. The main topic of discussion was Barnett's current job duty, which he described as "Endless optimism through daily disappointment." The current reason to remain optimistic through disappointment: needing to downsize the possible careers in WAR from 250 to 20.Barnett's focus is to keep the WAR project on track. "It's about getting the concepts and condensing them into soundbites [sic]," he said. Rather than let concepts spin grow too ambitious and spin wildly out of control, Barnett keeps things manageable in order to keep his employees focused.A perfect example: WAR career possibilities. "We went down a terrible path where we had too many careers," said Barnett. We have 250-odd at one point and we boiled it right back down to 20."Whether 250 careers or 20, any number is good enough for players eagerly anticipating the launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, which will be available on September 18....

Warhammer fans rejoyed when the word came down that Electronic Arts and Mythic Entertainment had finally settled on a September 18 launch date for the long awaited fantasy MMO Warhammer Online. Now Mythic's founder Mark Jacobs is talking more about their preparations for the launch and their plans leading up to Sept. 18.In a message board post on the fan site Warhammer Vault, Jacobs states that people who pre-ordered the Collector's Edition of the game will gain access to a special "Preview Weekend" in addition to playing in the beta test before the game's actual launch. According to Jacobs, "Once the CE buyers have had their chance to register and download the client, we will allow our Closed Beta testers into the PW as well." Collector's Edition pre-orders will also gain access to the closed beta next week and will get an extra day into the Head Start period just before the beta before the regular edition owners. The NDA for the closed beta will be lifted next week so expect lots of hands-on previews to hit the Internet tubes when that happens. Jacobs said there is still no word yet on when the open beta will begin, saying, "As the history of MMOs has shown, a bad OB can hurt both the long-term and the short-term the success of a game just as surely as a great OB can help the game succeed and we need to make sure that we are ready for OB on the day it begins."...

The speculation can finally end for players waiting to play the long awaited fantasy MMO Warhammer Online. The game's publisher Electronic Arts has now confirmed via a press release that the Mythic Entertainment developed title will officially launch in about six week on Sept. 18.Along with the launch date comes the game's prices for monthly play beyond buying the game in stores. Per month the game will cost $14.99 with a 3-month subscription costing $41.97 and a 6-month subscription costing $77.94. EA plans to have 30 day and 60 day pre-paid cards for the game in retail stores as well. You can still pre-order the game which gets you into the open beta along with being able to play the final game a few days before its official launch. Pre-orders also get some unique in-game items and the Universal Fighting System Battle Deck collectible card game....

As preparations are made for the fall 2008 launch of the long awaited Warhammer Online MMO, developer Mythic Entertainment has recently launched a new web site called. Road-to-WAR.com. This site is being designed to get players involved in the game's battle between the two in-game Realms, Order and Destruction.The web site uses Google Maps to chart which players will join which Realm in the game as well as which race they intend to play in Warhammer Online. Each day you log into the site you get 50 pieces of gold and you get even more if you recruit friends to join your Realm.Each week you fight in "battles". In the end, the winning Realm will get a "Never Ending Bowl of Custard and a special in-game title" when Warhammer Online launches....

It's been a long time in coming but now it looks like Electronic Arts is aiming for a very specific release date for Warhammer Online, the long-in-development MMO from the now re-re-named Mythic Entertainment. According to a post on EA's online store the game is due out on September 23.Of course, even having a specific release date doesn't mean things can't change between now and then. For example, EA actually sent out review copies of its console shooter Army of Two to the media in the fall on 2007 then pushed back the release date to March 2008 after issues with the review build were found. However it does look like players will finally be able to enter the Games Workshop created fantasy world in the very near future[Via Massively]...

With the release of Mythic Entertainment's anticipated Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning approximately two months away, the developer would like to remind you via this E3 gameplay trailer that online battles will be large, fast-paced, and utterly cataclysmic in their presentation....

Big Download's sister site Massively.com has all the news you'll need about MMOs. Here's the best, brightest, and most interesting stuff from the last week, all in one convenient place for your MMO minute. Mark Jacobs announces major features cut from Warhammer OnlineIn the latest of an ongoing series of interviews with MMORPG.com, Mythic Entertainment VP and General Manager Mark Jacobs has dropped big news on the Warhammer Online fanbase: major features are being culled from the game in order to make their Fall launch deadline. In short, the capital cities for the Dark Elf, High Elf, Orc, and Dwarf factions will not be in the game at launch. The Digital Continuum: Diet WARDiet Warhammer Online: same great taste, less content. Is it bad that the recently re-branded Mythic Entertainment just cut out a large portion of our Warhammer Online pie and put it in the deep freeze? Well it's certainly not good when a developer cuts content they've been talking about publicly for so long, especially when launch is only three or four months away. Massively visits Stargate Worlds: The interview This exclusive, in-depth, and conversational interview is overflowing with information about everything in the game, including TV series tie-ins and cameos, episodic content, combat, graphics, mini-games, and much, much more. Massively's E3 Week Prediction BingoEvery year it's customary to roll out predictions on what will and won't show up at the current year's E3 event. With Massively heading in the direction of the LA Convention Center already, we thought it might be fun to offer up some likely (and highly unlikely) predictions of what might get talked about next week. Jack Emmert discusses the Champions IP in fresh new videoDuring a recent media event at Cryptic Studios, Jack Emmert gave a presentation on what the Champions IP was all about, including the history of the Champions universe and its super-powered beings. He also took some time to answer a few questions, and delineated how the Champions Online MMO will distinguish itself from City of Heroes. ...

MMORPG.com has posted part two of their interview with Mythic Entertainment's Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of the development studio. In the interview, Jacobs reveals that Mythic has partnered with Punkbuster to crack down on the cheaters expected to inhabit Warhammer Online's servers."We think this is a huge win for the players," Jacobs said in regards to the partnership. "We are an RvR-centric game and anything that gives a player an advantage over another player in an RvR-centric game is a very bad thing. We take this stuff incredibly seriously, our history shows that. We wanted, by doing this deal with Punkbuster, to show the players that we're willing to go an extra step for them."Jacobs also confessed that Warhammer Online's reported six capital cities has been downsized to two in the interest of fun gameplay. "We decided to focus our energies on two capital cities; one for Order and one for Destruction, and make them fabulous, said Jacobs. "Not good, not great, but fabulous. We wanted to make our Capital Cities the best cities in any MMO. We think we're doing that, but it came at a price and that price is that the other cities aren't going in the game right now."Visit MMORPG.com to read the full interview....

Mythic Entertainment, formerly EA Mythic (and originally Mythic Entertainment), has announced the start of the next phase of their beta for MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Titled the Guild Beta, this newest phase is another way to stress test Warhammer Online's servers before the game's debut this fall."WAR's Guild Beta is here and some of the world's most experienced MMO players will now get a chance to play one of the most anticipated MMOs of all time," said Mark Jacobs, vice president and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "We look forward to seeing them beat, bash and burn their way through the world that we have created for their enjoyment. It's going to be a lot of fun and it's going to be glorious!"Mythic reports that over 10,000 guilds applied for WAR's Guild Beta phase. Approved applicants will assist Mythic in testing Guild and Heraldry features, one of the most notable being WAR's "revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) gameplay that immerses players in a world of perpetual conflict," according to the official Guild Beta press release....

In 2006, Electronic Arts purchased MMO game developer Mythic Entertainment and changed the name of the developer to EA Mythic. That was then but this is now. With EA under new management they apparently want to give their dev studios a little more freedom and MMORPG.com now reveals that EA Mythic is no more.According to a chat withthe developer's founder Mark Jacobs, EA Mythic has now gone back to being labeled Mythic Entertainment. Jacobs states that the new management at EA is allowing more of its developers to keep its original names (as an example both Bioware and Pandemic have retained their names since their purchase from EA earlier this year) but that Mythic is still owned by EA. Mythic is finishing up work on Warhammer Online which is due for release this fall....

As we have reported on before, Russia continues to be a big market for PC gaming. In fact it could be a bigger market than the US at the moment. Apparently that fact hasn't been lost on Electronic Arts and its Mythic development studio. We received a press release announcing that their long awaited fantasy MMO title Warhammer Online will be released in Russia in early 2009. The Russian release will be fully localized for that market which could mean that orc you kill in the game could be playing in the Kremlin. The game is still set for release in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand this fall.[via emailed press release]...

One of the big features that many MMO players want to see in their games is crafting and today Electronic Arts revealed how those features will work in their long awaited fantasy MMO title Warhammer Online. The game, currently scheduled for a fall release date, will actually have two crafting abilities (Apothecary and Talisman Making) along with four gathering skills (Cultivating, Magical Salvaging, Scavenging and Butchering) to aid in the making of items.According to the press release, EA's Mythic development studio didn't want the process of crafting to be terribly complicated or take hours to complete. As one might figure out from their titles, the Apothecary skill will allow players to make various potions, lotions and powders to handle a variety of tasks. The Talisman Making skill create magical items that player characters wear on their person....

Electronic Arts couldn't get a in-house MMO to successfully launch so a couple of years ago it bought Mythic Entertainment and brought in their fantasy title Warhammer Online. The game is now scheduled for release this fall (after several delays) and now EA has announced that folks in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia will be able not just have the game ship to their shores at the same time as the North American and European launches but they will also be able to log onto a local Australian serverIt's rare that an MMO title will begin its life in so many territories at once and having a server close to home will likely make it easier for those Aussies to enjoy the game without a ton of latency issues. Oh, and we have a boatload of new screenshots from the game to show off. There's a lot of visual goodness in this batch (depending on whether or not you like big huge monsters who show their guts . . .literally)....