Dungeon Siege coming in April

Microsoft and Gas Powered Games have announced that their upcoming role-playing game, Dungeon Siege, will be released in April 2002. The game was originally scheduled for release this holiday season, but the companies announced in August that the game was delayed until an unspecified time next year.

GameSpot spoke with Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor today about the game's status. According to Taylor, the game has been in a sort of pre-beta stage for about eight months and is just now hitting a full beta stage in its development, which indicates that all the game's features and content are present and that the team is now working exclusively on tweaking, balancing, and fixing bugs. Taylor noted that the several upcoming months of beta testing are necessary to ensure that the game's two worlds are thoroughly tested and tuned. Dungeon Siege includes a full single-player campaign that is predominantly linear, along with a nonlinear multiplayer campaign.

Gas Powered Games plans to focus exclusively on Dungeon Siege until launch, at which time it will take a week break and then come back to work on any necessary patch. If a patch is necessary, the company expects it to be very minor. The company will also then create the game's demo, which is planned for release two or three months after the game's release. Although there are no official plans for an expansion or sequel at this point, the developer is considering those options. According to Taylor, the team has a large number of ideas for features and content that it wasn't able to fit into the game, but could be included in an expansion or sequel.

Dungeon Siege is set in a seamless 3D medieval fantasy world, and it lets players explore and adventure with a group of characters. For more information, take a look at our collection of screenshots, movies, and in-depth preview coverage of the game.