This special preview issue of SOE Worlds (referred to as "Issue 0" in the filename) was originally announced in September 2004 for an October 2004 release as a collector's item. However, a reply to a letter to the editor in the Spring 2005 issue of SOE Worlds (p.4) suggests that the magazine ran into production difficulties and missed its publishing deadline. SOE eventually released the magazine as a free digital preview in April 2005, by which time most of the content was out of date.

It is unclear if physical copies of this issue were ever produced, or if that plan was abandoned due to production delays.