Some saddening news today for Warhammer Online fans. We've just learned that four classes and four racial capital cities have been removed from the game. Learn why this change occurred after the jump.

EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning looks to have a pretty rich crafting system, at least that's the impression we got after going over their press release and watching the video. Want to find out more, head on over to the full article.

Fresh out of their recent presentation at the New York Comic Con 2008, EA Mythic's Senior Producer Jeff Hickman, Creative Director Paul Barnett, and Associate Producer Josh Drescher took the time to explain the different roles they had in the development team of Warhammer Onine: Age of Reckoning. You can read all about their responses by clicking on the "read more" link below.

It's no secret that MMORPG enthusiasts are eager to beta test various games before launch since sticking to a single virtual world can get tedious. Unfortunately, there are several reasons why EA Mythic can't just let everyone join its closed beta for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. You'll learn why at the full article.

EA Mythic's Mark Jacobs has some pretty big goals for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's beta testing. He gave word that the MMORPG should be hitting one million beta testers soon. Want to know how they plan on doing this? Check out the full article by clicking on the "read more" link.

Gamers can now pre-order the collector's edition of EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. However, it might be some time before you get to play the full game since it was only recently revealed that the game has been delayed to a Fall release. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

It seems that EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is rapidly becoming one of the more popular MMORPGs in the gaming world to date.

A recent press release sent in by the developer announced that the game has already signed up over 500,000 closed beta registrants in North America and Europe. More details on this can be found in the full article.

In a recent release of the "State of the Game" from Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager for EA Mythic, restated the different points that led to the delay of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. He also addressed the theory that the game was delayed because of the studio's restructuring.

He also directly addressed the rumor that the game was delayed because EA Mythic laid off some people in a recent restructuring. He stated that although the studio had to lay off some people, this did not affect the game's development schedule.

EA Mythic has just announced that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning release date has been moved from March 2008 to mid-2008. General Manager Mark Jacobs explained this delay in an interview with GameSpot.

Jacobs said this MMORPG's success or failure will depend on its realm-versus-realm (RVR) gameplay and the overall quality of the game. He pointed out that certain aspects of their current RvR system isn't what they hoped it would be. To address this, they've decided to add open-field RvR and are looking into implementing different rule sets for every RvR server.

He also mentioned that the development of some of the game's features were taking more time than they expected. Jacobs pointed out that while the development team has been adding new content, quests, and systems, they weren't meeting the deadlines. Instead of cutting down on either features or polish, they decided to delay the game a bit longer. Here were his exact words:

What they didn't meet in the milestones was the date. So, they'd get everything in, but it took a little longer, and as it took a little longer, we were faced with two obvious choices: we cut some polish, or we cut some features. And we made the decision, backed by EA, to make sure that all that polish is in there, and all those features are in there. And that's it.

While this delay may disappoint Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning fans, Jacobs ended the interview with a few words that might cheer them up:

Nobody likes news of a delay. We're not happy with it. Nobody is. But when the delay is used so that we can build a better game, a more-glorious game, a game that will give players what they want, then I think we have to look at this as a very good thing.

No one likes it when their favorite MMORPGs server shuts down for two months; closing servers fuels much negative speculation. That is why Mark Jacobs, CEO of Mythic Entertainment, took the time to address player concerns and to explain the company's reasons for the announced October 10 shutdown of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

Mr. Jacobs summed up his reasons in three major points. First, he admitted that the current version of the game itself was imbalanced, and that the very purpose of the shutdown was to address the issues that beta testers had with the game.  Second, the development team knew early on that they would eventually have to shut down the servers at some point. Lastly, they wanted everyone, beta testers included, to be able return to the game with a fresh perspective, and not just report the same old bugs and issues to them over and over again.

Mr. Jacobs also responded to various players' comments about WAR development possibly grinding to a halt, something that has already happened once before. He reassured players that the key members of the WAR development team were still there, that the team wasn't yanking out whole systems, that the shutdown was not induced by Electronic Arts (EA), and that they weren't shutting the servers down in order to make WAR more like World of Warcraft. If WAR were really in danger of being shut down for good, Jacobs argued, then Mythic would simply have announced that the servers would be closed until further notice.

Furthermore, Mr. Jacobs mentioned that they deliberately limited the hiatus to two months because they know exactly what needs to be done, and exactly how long it will take them to do it. According to him, the game is now at a critical point in its development, and they would like to focus on making the game even better than it already is without being distracted. As it is, the WAR development team already has a wealth of data with which to keep themselves busy during the two-month break.

Game developers like Mythic Entertainment sometimes receive criticism no matter what they do, and Mark Jacobs knows this. Nevertheless, the important thing for him, at least as far as WAR is concerned, is for everyone to take one step back in order to take two steps forward.