Anarchy Online Gold

From yesterday, the next huge MMORPG (which happens to be science-fiction-oriented) Anarchy Online, just went GOLD and will be in stores at the end of the month. Here’s the press release:

Norway, June 11th, 2001- After receiving high praise at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo last month, Funcom’s highly anticipated title, Anarchy Online, has reached gold master status and is now in manufacturing. As the first game in years to take up competition with other popular massively multi-player online role-playing games, Anarchy Online will be available in Nordic and North American stores by June 27th with servers going live that day.

“We are very excited to bring Anarchy Online to the market and expect that our customers will be very happy with the final product,” says Funcom president Andre Backen. “No other game in the market today can rival our graphics and none can support as many players in the same playing field as we can.”

While the actual game code is now in manufacturing, with all gaming content and features completed, testing for server stability will continue until the day the game goes live. Funcom now has thousands of testers playing this version to find server problems and get them solved as quickly as possible before launch.

Anarchy Online is a massively multi-player online role-playing game in a science fiction setting. This game can only be played online and users will need to pay a monthly subscription fee in order to access the game. Players will encounter a thriving, constantly developing, 3D online world with thousands of other players connected at the same time. Join the Omni-Tek® corporation or the rebel clans, and take part in the epic struggle unfolding on the mysterious world of Rubi-Ka. It’s up to you to take on the challenge, and make yourself a part of history – future history.

Now… just a few days ago I posted a newsbit on the work they had left to do before it was finished, the part mystifying me being the actual game content of quests, tying them together to bring coherency, etc. Now a few days later they are done. I’m sure the team has been working round the clock but this seemingly sudden release, while the beta 4 just started mere days ago is surprising. I should be through downloading the beta today so I can finally check it out myself and finally not have to depend on 2nd hand opinions for my sole information.