Contrary to previous reports, Age of Conan developers Funcom acknowledged that they will be having an open beta for their game prior to release.
Previously, the developers had stated they would only be opening a beta to their pool of invitees (of whom some 15,000 exist currently), which led to many outraged fans of the title.
To appease these rabid fans, AoC community manager Shannon Drake made a post on the official AoC forums which stated that the developers "are planning to have an open beta for the game as we get closer to launch, however, it will be through specific partners and require an application/registration process."
We can't know for sure what they mean until they actually detail how they'll run this open beta, but their description sounds suspiciously like a Fileplanet-exclusive type of arrangement (or at least, it sounds enough like that to convince the staffs of both Game|Life and Massively). Normally I can't stand these kind of corporate schemes, but if Funcom can make a ton of cash by letting someone else host their huge beta client, I say more power to 'em.
Age of Conan: There will be an open beta [Massively]
