Mythic Dev Mark Jacobs just dropped word of the Warhammer Online open beta client download will be available as of this Monday (Aug. 18th), and that a new system will be in place to alleviate concerns over the slow speeds of the old torrent download.

Folks,

On Monday, you’ll be able to download the client via a solution that is, quite frankly, better than what we are currently using. Given the concern/issues with the current Torrent setup, I can’t imagine any reasonable person being disappointed with what we are going to do next week. However, in order to get that set up properly, we weren’t able to offer it today. I’m sorry for the delay but I know that you’ll like what we are doing on Monday better than what we would have been able to do today. And no, it won’t cost anything as per my recent post on this subject.

Mark

Much to the disappointment of many anxious WAR pre-order players, EA has announced the Open Beta to start September 7th and only last for only one week, leaving quite a few fan forums ablaze with flames at the moment.

Mythic Begins Preparations for September 7th Open Beta

FAIRFAX, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 18, 2008–Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, today announced that the open beta for their highly anticipated MMORPG, Warhammer(R) Online: Age of Reckoning(TM) (WAR), will begin on September 7th, 2008. This means that hundreds of thousands of fans will be able to enter the gritty fantasy world of WAR to experience the thrill of Realm vs. Realm(TM) (RvR) combat before the game goes live on September 18th, 2008.

Speculation has run rampant at this point, with many placing the blame on the European publisher GOA’s slow roll out delaying an early US open beta launch in order for them to prepare for a simultaneous US/EU launch.

Details are also still unknown for when the NDA will be dropped. With a 3 week lead up to the open beta, it’s beginning to look like “now or never”, else Mark may need to eat his words..

UPDATE: The NDA is now expected to be dropped on Tuesday August 19th according to a post by Mark Jacobs.