Champions Online open beta and early start schedule revealed
by Kyle Horner 
Aug 12th 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, New titles, News items, Champions Online
- August 16th: closed beta servers wiped.
- August 17th: open beta begins, servers taken down nightly from 1am-3am PDT.
- August 24th: servers shut down at 10am PDT and wiped for early start.
- August 28th: early start begins, allowing GameStop and Best Buy pre-orders to play before the Sept. 1st launch.
Players involved with the early start can defeat special enemies who drop unique items only available until September 1st. Cryptic hasn't said what these items are going to be, so we're in the dark until the early start begins -- or they decide to share that information early.
We're definitely (unfortunately?) going through GameStop for the early start, as some of us will be in Seattle at PAX during launch and don't want to miss out on powering up our superheroes beforehand. Plus, we're pretty impatient when it comes to our MMOs. It just goes with the job, really.
Update: Best Buy customers will also receive early start access. Our apologies!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
JP said on 12:06PM 8-12-2009
Isn't open beta open to everyone? I thought that was the point of an open beta? do you have to have a pre-order or be part of CB to play in open beta?
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Landeyda said on 12:08PM 8-12-2009
I'm really getting sick of these store-only exclusives beginning to seep into PC gaming. Even more so when it comes to GameStop, since they gave up on PC gaming a long time ago and I have no desire to give them any bit of money.
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Omega2k3 said on 1:43AM 8-15-2009
They may actually be changing their pace in regards to PC gaming.
They've been treating it more like it should be treated lately, and they just joined these guys:
http://www.pcgamingalliance.org/
Smog said on 12:11PM 8-12-2009
Open beta just means that the NDA has been lifted
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UnSub said on 12:15PM 8-12-2009
I think in this case open beta is everyone who pre-ordered plus 50k new beta codes are going out to those who have signed up to the ChampO registration list.
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Kuno said on 12:18PM 8-12-2009
As reported in the post you linked to, referring to the Gamestop early start:
"Best Buy preorder customers will also receive access to the Early Start Program and head start weekend."
Has this changed? Will Best Buy preorders not include the early start anymore?
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tw34k said on 12:21PM 8-12-2009
Im so glad i live in australia, where the release date here is being toted as the 10th of sept and there is almost 0 options as far as pre-orders go. Even if its on track for release it will still be behind.
Looks like digital distrubtion is the only hope not that ill miss another box but it does feel somewhat cheated either using gamestop or steam to get the game just to be on it around the same time, cryptic kinda dropped the ball with a good global launch but playing in the closed beta i wont hold it against them.
sadly the only MMO ive seen with excellent prelaunch release has been warhammer online.
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Master Saji said on 12:25PM 8-12-2009
If there's one game I'll pay a monthly fee for, it's one that can let dress up my avatar, as close as possible, as a super-powered Bruce Dickinson. Yes, THE Bruce Dickinson.
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Broken Bottle said on 12:38PM 8-12-2009
If the beta is going to be open, where do we download the client?
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JamesWolf said on 1:08PM 8-12-2009
If you register for beta on the champions-online site they will send you and email with the relavent information regarding where to download the client.
bluemeep said on 2:00PM 8-12-2009
I'm starting to feel a bit of a second class citizen for picking it up care of Amazon.
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Demona said on 3:28PM 8-12-2009
You too?
Neurotic said on 3:17PM 8-12-2009
Remind me again what the difference is between PDT and GMT?
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phobic99 said on 4:04PM 8-12-2009
Not to be rude but I assume you're already on the internet when you asked your question.
At any rate, here you go: http://tinyurl.com/mar8z8 (I couldn't resist :( )
Hypester said on 4:14PM 8-12-2009
During DST PT or PDT is 7 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-7)
So nightly restarts will be from 8am-10am GMT, methinks.
Wjowski said on 8:11PM 8-16-2009
Considering that, at best, you have a 3 out of 10 chance of finding any useful information on Google about nearly everything (and about a 6 out of 10 chance of finding some bizarre, unrelated fetish porn), I'd rather take my chances just asking.
Mutak said on 11:09AM 8-19-2009
If you only manage to find something useful 3/10 times when searching, then yer doin' it wrong. Seriously, it's not brain surgery. Google is not some mystifying tool requiring arcane syntax. Type in words that describe what you're looking for. If you don't find it on the first try, try picking different words.
Neurotic said on 4:21AM 8-13-2009
Thanks guys. Yeah, I should've Googled it, but hey, I'm lazy... :D
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Box said on 6:03AM 8-13-2009
UK and French and customers buying it from any of the listed sites available will get access to the early start program and Germans will get it if they buy from amazon. Could be worth mentioning since USA isn't the only place in the world you know.
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Atnor said on 3:57PM 8-13-2009
Definitely looking forward to it :)
One thing that seems to drive me crazy with these kinda things though is that I end up having to buy 2 copies, one for me and one for my wife. With Aion, I had to pre-order one from Amazon and one from Best Buy. I originally tried to just order 2 games from Bestbuy and they said it was one beta code per customer. Ummm... OK... So you want me to cancel my order and spend money at another store.... OK... so this time I just went ahead and ordered one box from Gamestop and one from Bestbuy.
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