Electronic Arts today announced that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), the highly anticipated massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) from EA Mythic, has surpassed 500,000 closed beta registrants in North America and Europe. Beta testing resumes next week with a special sneak peek at the new Dark Elf lands and careers. Thanks to the tremendous response from fans around the world, the development team has a strong pool of gamers to engage in WAR’s final tuning stages.

“It’s fantastic that over half a million players want to help us with the development of WAR,” said Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of EA Mythic. “Their feedback will help us take WAR to the next level as we focus on refining gameplay, adding polish, and most importantly, making sure the game is extremely fun. We can’t wait to let them all into the living, breathing Warhammer universe that we’re creating.”

Poised to be one of the biggest new MMORPG releases of next year, WAR is slated for official launch in Q2 of calendar year 2008. The Beta Center is still open and accepting recruits at: https://betacenter.eamythic.com/signup.php.

Based on Games Workshop’s epic and longstanding tabletop fantasy war game, Warhammer Online features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) game play that immerses players in a world of perpetual conflict. For more information, please visit www.warhammeronline.com.

About Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR)

War is everywhere in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), the new fantasy MMORPG from the creators of Dark Age of Camelot™. Based on Games Workshop’s wildly successful Warhammer tabletop fantasy war game, this world provides a rich setting for hundreds of thousands of players to experience the epic nature of war and the glory of battle.

Players are thrust into a grim world of perpetual conflict to fight for the Realms of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) or Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos). Next generation Realm vs. Realm game play ensures that players are never fighting alone. With an army of allies at their back, players will defend their homeland, invade enemy Realms, and ultimately lead the siege of their enemy’s Capital City. Every aspect of the game – every player, every quest, every encounter, and every battle – can turn the tide of the ongoing war and mean victory for a player’s Realm!

For the first time ever, players can engage in Public Quests™ – multi-stage, communal quests to be completed by allied players fighting together against overwhelming odds. They can also embark on an epic quest to complete the Tome of Knowledge and unlock Warhammer lore, detailed monster information, new abilities, rewards, and major story plotlines. Drawing from a quarter century of highly detailed source material, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will bring Games Workshop’s fantasy world to life in a way that will allow players to create characters destined for great deeds on the field of battle.