Q: WiC 360: When is it coming out? Can you give us some details regarding the control scheme? Will there be a demo?

DP: We’re working with Swordfish Studios, who’re making the 360 version, and helping them in every way we can. There’s no official release date revealed yet. They’re not as far in development as the PC version and there are still some things to do. Getting the controls mapped out is one of the more interesting challenges for the 360, but the way Swordfish have designed the layout is really, really smart.

Q: Will a demo and server files be available prior to the release date of the game (for large clan support)?

DP: We are already working with several server partners when it comes to hosting, and we will gradually add more. The Demo will be hosted by ourselves and select partners, but we won’t release any serverside code.

Q: However between now and the date of release if and when there is another beta, will you get special interest groups for the game involved again?

DP: The Demo is coming soon, so keep an eye open for that! We will continue our tradition of involving different groups; clans, tournament organizers and so on. It’s very fun and the feedback we get this way is very useful.

Q: Will Massive show public support via website news updates for any organizations that will run a World in Conflict League?

DP: We’re very keen to take care of our community, so we will certainly help promote all sorts of initiatives, not just tournaments. I encourage everyone who is planning to do some interesting WIC activities to contact our Community Manager who will take a look and see if it’s something we can support.

Q: Are there additional units or abilities which will make their way into the game? The scenery is wonderful, but all the maps in the world won't make the game a large success if the units don't get a little more advanced in the way they counter each other. It'd be nice to see more transport variants such as a HMMWV w/TOW or a Blackhawk UH-60 w/mini-guns.

DP: The units that were available in the beta are the final units. We limited the number of units to make the game more focused, and we tried to make these units both fun and diverse. When two units engage in combat, there are a lot of things that affect the outcome of the battle. Aside of the basic damage, we also have an advanced armor-facing system, calculations for the bullets and the field of vision. The special abilities do their part as well, and once you’ve really mastered one of the roles and play it in unison with your teammates, you can see that the game has a lot of tactical depth, regardless of the number of units.

You will also discover further depth in the different game modes, and you’ll learn that the landscape types require different strategies too.

Q: Will WiC be available online, such as Steam or EA Downloader?

DP: We’re looking into the option of doing something like this, but nothing has been decided yet.

Q: Is there going to be a multiplayer demo? If so, when would it come out? And would I be able to create servers to play on a LAN for it?

DP: The demo will feature a sneak peek of both single player and multiplayer. We’re going to do it like in the Alpha and Beta tests and have the multiplayer demo online. The demo is slated to go live late in August. The current plan is to not include LAN but to offer skirmish mode. That may change, though, but that’s the plan at the moment.

Q: Are there plans for a map maker and ways to toggle the HUD if people want to film using the game?

DP: We’re adding a lot of neat little tools for the happy mod makers out there, including some great tools for filming in-game. We’ve had a lot of fun ourselves filming in the game engine, and it would only be fair to spread it to the community as well. But if you don’t want it to be that fancy, you can still turn off the HUD at any time using F10 ;-)

Q: Will you continue to put your game out there for events (like CPL etc...) after the game is released?

DP: That’s definitely something that we want, and we’ve worked together with ESL and CPL to make sure that World in Conflict is a great contender for the e-sport scene. It’s looking very promising. World in Conflict is designed for competitive play, and as long as people are willing to play it competitively, there is no reason for it not to attend the e-sports events.

One important aspect of e-sports games that will benefit all gamers, is that a game that gets used in tournaments typically gets patched and balanced more often than other games. The pro-gamers push the limits so hard that the demand for perfection is a lot higher than in many more casual games. This is something we look forward to, and we will stick with the game for a long time.

Q: Now I have been in the pre-alpha, alpha, closed & open beta I have witnessed first-hand how WIC has evolved. (TBH - it was good enough as it is in Closed beta to sell). My question is: does this game (if it sells well) will be looking for an expansion or even a sequel? I have read on these forums that China sounds like a good faction to introduce and also to actually duke it out in the pacific.

DP: We’re working out some possible ways to develop World in Conflict from here, and we do have some pretty cool ideas about what we could do. But as we’re rounding things up with the first game, it’s still a bit early to say what players can expect from World in Conflict in the future – we’re not even sure ourselves!

Q: Are there going to be sub-factions in the game? Basically what I mean is that obviously you have your three big factions - USA, Soviets, and NATO. Are there going to be any sub-factions like the US (Army, Marines); Soviet (Army, Navy); NATO (Germany, Britain, France) -- It strikes me as a great way to diversify the game without having to add much more content.

DP: We have diversified the factions a bit, where it made sense to do so. While the multiplayer mode still focuses on the three factions, the single-player campaign features some diversity, especially when it comes to NATO. We’ve tried to capture the feeling of NATO as a multinational force, and have made it quite apparent in some parts of the campaign.

Q: I have a server collocated strictly for hosting servers for games my group takes place in. When it comes to hosting - how will this work? Will it be a rank/unrank server system or will they all be uniform and all servers will assign points to the ranking system. The closest thing I can relate my question to would be Battlefield 2 by EA. They had ranked servers but only "certified" hosting companies could host the servers. All other privately hosted servers were un-ranked and essentially useless to operate due to the lack of player population on non-ranked servers.

DP: For security reasons and for making sure that we minimize any potential exploits, we’re only allowing our trusted partners to host ranked servers. We still encourage people to host servers of their own, as it’s a great way to play the game just like you want it, be it for mods or clan practice.

We’re also investigating a system which would allow us to add user-made maps to the officially ranked map cycles. This is not something we expect to do from day one, but we are very excited about the idea, and we would personally enjoy playing user-created maps, approving them, and to make them a part of the ranked universe!

When will the WiC Demo be released?

DP: It’s currently scheduled for an August 20 release. Keep an eye on worldinconflict.com for updates!

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