Earth & Beyond goes gold

Electronic Arts and Westwood studios have just announced that the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Earth & Beyond has gone gold, meaning that the game is complete and is now being prepared to ship to retail.

Westwood has decided to ship the game in limited numbers when it launches on September 24 in order to ensure that new players have the best experience possible as they enter the Earth & Beyond galaxy. "We want to ensure a great experience for everyone, so we'll control the flow of new players into the game, preventing what could be a galactic traffic jam," said Craig Alexander, vice president and executive producer of the game. "Starting Sept 24, we'll ship new copies of Earth & Beyond to stores every week, populating each game server with thousands of players."

Earth & Beyond will see players taking command of their own starships and traveling the galaxy in search of adventure. The game universe will evolve over time as the developers add new characters, missions, monsters, and even planets for players to explore.

Westwood is currently conducting a public test of the game with thousands of people playing every day. New testers will continue to be selected right up until September 23, and anyone who's interested in participating can sign up at the game's official site. Anyone prepurchasing the game from Electronics Boutique, GameStop, Amazon.com, or EA.com stores won't need to sign up, since they'll automatically be included in the public test.

For more information on Earth & Beyond, take a look at our previous coverage of the game.