XboxAddict released an interview held with En Masse Entertainment’s Senior Product Manager for TERA; Matt “Denommenator” Denomme regarding the console version (this interview while specific to Xbox, will also be pertinent to the PS4).
The main details are that the console version will launch in Spring 2018 (EME has been hinting this will be sooner than later though) and only with the classes that were playable during the open beta test (thus all the recent speculation about whether or not the gunner and ninja would also be included is moot).
The interview also mentions that the beta client will NOT be patchable to the launch version (last week, an EME representative mentioned not to delete the beta client since there might be some updates that would roll out; and sure enough, a 1.0.4 patch did show up.) However, this again might have been to build anticipation/hype especially as players saw they could see the servers in the listing once the patch was applied.
The final important detail is that there will be Founder’s packs (4 different pricing tiers) and early access (7 days of advanced head start access). The front loading does not surprise me since both Kritika Online and Closers had such packs available. Bluehole also did all of this work for console and so are going to be look to recoup expense via their take of the revenues. There won’t be any physical disc or retail release though (which again makes sense due to the added expense).
As of this entry, this seems to be the only interview released so far. The author of that article posted it on EME’s official forum. There are thus many who aren’t sure if the details posted are factual or not because of it being the only interview out so far, no official news from EME (since this interview was posted on the weekend), and since this interview about the details is in advance of the official news, some information does not match (like Denomme mentioning “currently selling Founder’s packs” or the fact that the open beta client won’t patch to the release client in light of a company representative saying there would be updates rolling out to those with the beta client installed).
XboxAddict is not a large scale gaming media site like IGN, Gamespot, etc; it’s more like a Xbox fan site (the about section on their site details it). Normally, these kind of interviews happens in advance (due to the logistics involved with allowing various media sites access to these individuals) with the news pending an official PR (likely coming in a few days) where once the imposed publication deadline has passed, those sites publish the interview.
For whatever reason (maybe to build hype), Denommenator gave the ok to have this interview published earlier (on the weekend to boot). I’m normally skeptical but I see very little for the author of this interview to make this stuff up (or all the content on their site as well). We’ll find out in a few days the full details by EME anyway.
UPDATE: EME has confirmed this interview was actually published earlier than expected (seems there might have been miscommunication as the console team did give their ok). It was also confirmed that this specific interview was targeted specifically at the Xbox; where they would need to uninstall the beta client. PS4 players on the other hand will be able to update to the launch client (this is probably what they were testing late last week).
