My 2 cents, they are not commenting on any wipe pre launch as it would cause many players to just flat quit with the impending doom of their hard work. That being said, I don’t see how that’s any different than the impending doom of wipe at launch. Funcom is damned if they do damned if they don’t these days unfortunately. For my part, I know I’m going to lose everything, but I’m still playing because it’s a fun game. If it gets wiped pre launch, then wiped at launch, fine by me.
My other thought regarding possible wipe is how many changes there are; combat, weapons, tech tree, attributes and perks, changes to the map (holes being closed up, thrall camps significantly altered, nodes moved/added/removed), etc - I do not see how they can release what’s been dubbed the ‘combat update’ to official servers without a wipe. Just too much to go wrong IMO. They’re trying to eliminate bugs, not create them, and pushing the update to official without wipe seems to be asking for trouble.