Man, even if it were true, that would not bode well for the game. They scrap two designs, only recently showed the "game" to the rest of the company and all of a sudden there's a beta. So i guess a alpha stage is old-fashioned now. And how do you get a game into beta without a single press screenshot or any tangible information other than some obscure interviews with Smed saying "hey guys, we're making an mmo. goodbye."