‘The Secret World’, the highly anticipated modern-day massively multiplayer online game of myths, legends and conspiracies, draws ever closer to its July 3rd release date. In preparation for launch, Funcom is excited to announce that the fourth and final Beta Weekend – titled ‘The Battle Begins’ – will be made open to all of the more than 1.3 million gamers who have signed up to beta test ‘The Secret World’. Guaranteed access to the final Beta Weekend will also be given to everyone registering via the game’s official website by June 22nd (use the beta sign-up form on the right).
‘The Secret World Beta Weekend #4: The Battle Begins’ starts at 9am PDT on June 22nd and runs for almost three entire days until 11.59pm PDT on June 24th. During that time players will be able to experience all the content that has been included in the three previous Beta Weekends, such as all three secret society starter experiences, the town of Kingsmouth, the Savage Coast and the Polaris and Hell Raised dungeons. Brand new this weekend is the inclusion of player vs. player gameplay, where the secret societies must duke it out in legendary locations such as Stonehenge and Eldorado. Participants will also get to experience the persistent player vs. player war zone of Fusang Projects, where over two hundred players clash together in a massive struggle for server-wide power. The outcome of these battles affects all players belonging to the victorious secret society, across the server.
The previous Beta Weekend – titled ‘Hell Raised’ – ran from June 15th to June 17th and saw the highest number of players yet participating and is undoubtedly the most successful event yet.
“The game is definitely living up to our expectations, and it appears this is a sentiment we share with our testers as well,” says Funcom SVP of Sales & Marketing Morten Larssen. “The playtime per participant during the last Beta Weekend was very impressive, shattering all records from previous Beta Weekends or even beta events from our previous games. This is a strong indication of the engagement and depth of the gameplay experience. Beta surveys have shown that four out of five players will recommend the game to their friends, something we find remarkably positive and a true testament to the quality of the game and the amazing work the team has done.”
‘The Secret World’ is consistently mentioned as one the most highly anticipated MMOs in development. The highly engaged and active community surrounding the game continues to grow quickly, and hundreds of thousands of community members have already sworn allegiance to their secret society through online initiation tests as well as ‘The Secret War’ Facebook-powered pre-launch social experience that saw over 250.000 participants actively engage in the conflict for their secret society.
In well over one hundred hands-on previews throughout the international gaming press the past eight months, ‘The Secret World’ has been heralded as “one of the most distinctive MMO’s of the last 10 years” (Videogamer) and world-leading online gaming site MMORPG.com went on to predict that “The Secret World is going to take the world by storm and set new standards in excellence in gameplay.” The game has also been singled out as one of the most anticipated games of 2012 by gaming sites such as G4TV, VideoGamer, and RockPaperShotgun.
‘The Secret World’ is developed by Funcom and co-published by EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc.. For more information about the game or how to register for the beta, please visit www.thesecretworld.com.
