Although "Dragon's Dogma Online" is still scheduled for a 2015 release in Japan, the title is expected to hit Western shores for the PS3, PS4, and PC by early 2016. A good sign of this is the recently announced alpha testing that is going to be held in Japan for eight days total.
The alpha testing will only be done in Japan and for the PS3 only. One of the main goals of the test is to check the game's multiplayer connections, especially since the game is set to feature cross-platform servers so that players can interract no matter what device they are playing on.
Testing will also check game balancing, UI, and behavior, among many others, but stability of the game's servers will take priority.
Recruitment for the alpha testing runs from April 7 to 20, but the game's client will become available starting April 15 up to April 30. The actual testing period will run from April 15. In order for players to be invited, they must have a Capcom Online Games account as well as a PSN account. Disk space of 4 GB is needed on their PS3 hard drive.
The alpha period of "Dragon's Dogma Online" will have a level cap of 10 and only four of the eight jobs will be featured: Hunter, Fighter, Priest, and Shield Sage. Only one character per account is allowed but players can change jobs at any time.
"Dragon's Dogma Online" will run at a 1080p resolution at 60 fps for PS4 while PS3 players will only enjoy a 720p resolution with a 30 fps rate. How the different framerates will interfere with real-time game play has yet to be seen but that is one of the aspects that the alpha test will monitor.
According to HardCoreGamer, Capcom is scheduled to conduct further testing down the line with a planned beta test to occur this summer for all three platforms.
