IWD 2 release date

Magus Noctem · Post by **Magus Noctem** » Thu May 30, 2002 10:10 pm

Since the previous release date for IWD 2 was the 28th of May, I inquired as to why it wasn't on the shelves anywhere. One place finally told me it was pushed forward to June 27th in my area of East Texas, at least. Anyone out there gotten it yet or are we all in the same boat?

seraphim · Post by **seraphim** » Thu May 30, 2002 10:42 pm

chips and bits lists the release date as 10/02, which is a real [snip!]. hopefully, it will be sooner. anyone hear any good rumblings?

Moderator Edit - language.

Onyx · Post by **Onyx** » Fri May 31, 2002 1:12 am

Well, over here in Europe it's said to be released end of June .

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Fri May 31, 2002 10:28 am

At gonegold.com, they have a release date of July 3rd. Prepare to liberate your independence indoors with fireworks in the form of virtual blood and ichor. Hack and slash your way to freedom. Mmmmwaauuhhh hahahaha.

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Fri May 31, 2002 11:27 am

IWD2 Date... (from Feargus Urquhart on BIS Board)

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to quiet most of your fears about the release of Icewind Dale II. So you all know, we are very close to finishing the game up, we are no longer implementing any new features and the number of active bugs is dropping drastically every day. We are even hoping to have every quest in the game completely playable and tested by early next week.

I bet you are all now asking what that means for our date. Normally, I would be able to tell you all a specific date right now because we are so close. Unfortunately there are two five thousand pound gorillas coming down the pipe right now named Warcraft III and Neverwinter Nights. This means that the retailers are not sure what they can order or when they can expect these games which impacts what they are willing to order of Icewind Dale II. It's sort of a big game of standoff right now to see who is going to blink, ie. ship or slip first.

However, I really hope that we will be able to tell you all when we will be on the shelves soon. We should be able to announce that date within the next ten days - I hope, I unfortunately might have to break that promise. Also, that ten days is when I can tell you all about a ship date, not when the product will ship.

Lastly, the main Interplay site was updated with a new date recently, which was incorrect; it should be changed as of the time I am writing this.

Thanks for reading all of this and for your patience with us,

__________________
Feargus Urquhart
President
Black Isle Studios

There you go, straight from the horse's mouth.

[-Mortician-] · Post by **[-Mortician-]** » Mon Jul 01, 2002 12:56 pm

hmmm

I'm not sure how accurate this is (cause dates are always fluctuating) but my Brother manages an Electronics Boutique up here in Canada, and the upadated release date for IWD2 they have is the END of August...............it would suck but thats what i hear. (by the way, the "bonus" pack you get for preordering IWD2 is cool, u get a bonus CD, character cards, and a map.) though i guess if the "Preorder pack" is in already, perhaps IWD2 will be here sooner than expected........we'll see

Edit**** i just checked, and the "official" release date we have over here is August 27th/28th. Americans can likely expect it to be shipped a little earlier, cause we all know that us Canadians get the short end of the stick

hehe

Magus Noctem · Post by **Magus Noctem** » Mon Jul 01, 2002 8:24 pm

Don't rush the release date for IWD 2, trust me

I usually rub a rabbit's foot and pray to the gods of PC gaming for an earlier than expected release for awaited games, but ever since I bought and played Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor from UbiSoft, I don't mind waiting at all for games yet to come.
PoR has so many software bugs and problems that it is virtually unplayable. On the UbiSoft website (http://www.UbiSoft.com), they have FOUR patches you can download to "fix" the innumerable problems the game has, though none of them worked for me at all.
So, be damn thankful Black Isle is taking their time so they can offer a quality product with few or no glitches. UbiSoft lost my business for good by throwing together a piece of garbage and marketing it without any kind of effective quality assurance or testing. If you doubt me, just go to the website, choose PC games, Pool of Radiance and click on the Technical Support (what a laugh) link and just read the list of problems inherent to the game.
I loved Icewind Dale before, but now I revere it. And in case you were thinking of trying out PoR, don't bother. You'll only end up getting butt hammered. My condolences to those of you who already have been.

[-Mortician-] · Post by **[-Mortician-]** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 11:39 am

hehe

i say the longer they wait the better. It can only improve the game right?...........right?

/-\lastor · Post by **/-\lastor** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 12:25 pm

Ucheuche-daikatana-

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 3:26 am

IWD2 Date (Update) 06/26/2002
Hi All,

I know you all miss me when I don't post for a while and that my hopefully in ten days has been up for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I don't have an update on our date yet. I know that EBGames.com posted a date and I can't tell you (yet) whether that is going to be the actual ship date or not.

Sorry, I know that I'm not posting any new news, but I thought I should say something because of the info up on the web.

Feargus Urquhart

Looks like the release is post-poned until middle or end of August.

From what I've been able to glean from reading the BIS forums--the reason for the delay is not bug-testing--though knowing BIS they will take advantage of the delays with extra bug-testing. The BIS staff appear to be on vacation now--which would indicate that the game is finished. Basically, Vivendi Universal publishing are the ones in control right now--BIS has no say in the release date. Vivendi also released Warcraft3, and seem to be holding off to increase sales by not having competition from NWN and Warcraft. Whether IWD2's sales would be adversely affected by the above is debateable IMO. I always planned on buying both NWN and IWD2, and in a weird way looking more forward to IWD2 since it will be a familiar and loved world.

ILL WILL · Post by **ILL WILL** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 12:05 pm

Hmm.

I'll say it.

1. I don't really like NWN. I'm also really looking forward to IWDII.

2. I don't really like the public responses posted by the designers on the forums and at Planet BG. Surrounding what seem to me to be half-hearted apologies about the game's delay as well as an inabaility to provide a release date, there is definately an atmosphere of "DEAL WITH IT" in the communication posted. The developers seem to say "Look, we're getting sick of you guys (the consumers) asking us about the release date so pipe down," along with an "I-don't-care-what-you-players-think" attitude.

Whatever.

Fix the product and sell it.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 12:18 pm

@Illwill, you can edit your own posts. Just click the edit button, underneath one.

EPKJ · Post by **EPKJ** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 12:48 pm

Ill Will, I agree with you. I can't stand Neverwinter Nights. It is nothing more than a Diablo clone. This is not what most gamers have been waiting five years to purchase.
With regard to the developers' comments, I would rather they said nothing until they have a release date.

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Fri Jul 12, 2002 8:38 am

Originally posted by EPKJ
Ill Will, I agree with you. I can't stand Neverwinter Nights. It is nothing more than a Diablo clone. This is not what most gamers have been waiting five years to purchase.
With regard to the developers' comments, I would rather they said nothing until they have a release date.

I sort of agree...would rather be told it's coming out just beforehand so I don't get my hopes up...

However, I believe that the folks at BIS fully anticipated the end of May release, and that the product was probably ready...but that matter is out of their hands. It's up to the distribution company, Vivendi. I was going to email Vivendi about what I thought about it, but if you go to their website, there is no email listed.

hwttdz · Post by **hwttdz** » Sat Jul 13, 2002 10:13 pm

I've seen 8/6 at gamespot and 8/5 at amazon. Those might be the other way around. That leads me to believe that it will be out at least by the end of august but I have hopes for the beginning.

ILL WILL · Post by **ILL WILL** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 10:27 am

While we're on the subject...

I'm not really impressed with how the developers respond to the number of comments made about the release dates, point system, etc.

I's sure someone here will express how annoying a lot of the comments and questions the future customers ask actually are, but I will disagree.

Still I think its bad business practice to chide and scold your customers...To tell them you don't care what they think, or that they had better play the game before stating an opinion.

You can see examples at planetbg in new and archived news.

tegoyo · Post by **tegoyo** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 2:26 am

And when the game is out the same people are going to complain that it is buggy and should have been tested more. Poor developers, they can never get it right. Maybe one day they are fed up with this and stop releasing games alltogether. Thank you!

ILL WILL · Post by **ILL WILL** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 4:40 am

Ha.

Maybe one day we'll all get sick of going to work and quit...and starve to death.

Its their job. They are developers. For those of them who have been assigned by their company the role of communicating developments to the public, they are doing their job. They should do so professionally.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 4:52 am

@Ill Will, for what it's worth, I think you would get a lot more mileage out of your change-of-topic if you simply started it up under Speak Your Mind (SYM), instead of here. Because what you're discussing is really not IWD2 release dates, but the way any developer represents themselves when dealing with the public--a much broader theme.

ILL WILL · Post by **ILL WILL** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 9:27 am

I expected you to say that. However, what I am talking about is IWDII and the developers and public affairs officers working on it, and not making generalizations about developers as a group.