TOR: 2012 release?

[lieutenantfrost]

Was very surprised and disappointed they didn't have a release date for TOR at E3. What concerns me is that they originally said 2nd Quarter 2011, then end of summer, NOW they won't say before Christmas or even Christmas Release. Doesn't make sense if they want to generate hype for what is going to be the most expensive game ever made.

Either the game is mostly ready and just needs stress testing, bug fixes, etc or there is major work still to do to the point they don't even feel confident on when it will be finished.

I don't see it coming out this year. Perhaps March of next year?

thoughts?

 

[easymark26]

Announcing a release date "would be irresponsible for two really good reasons", Riccitiello said. "One, the competitive marketplace. Putting a window out there creates a window of opportunity for our principal competitor to put out an expansion pack or an ad campaign et cetera around our launch window. Bad move at this point in time.
Second, you do a beta for a reason. You intend to learn something. If you have the answer before you ask the question you're not listening. We intend, [BioWare founders] Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk and [EA Games Label president] Frank Gibeau, to listen to their consumers."

all of the Bioware reps at E3 stuck with 2011 as a release, I really dont think it will be next year, I believe it will be this year still November is my guess.
however if it does go until next year it wont be in March that is a guarantee as Mass Effect 3 will be out in March to have 2 of the most anticipated games coming from the same studio in the same month.... wont happen.

 

[Nihilis]

They'll stick with this year I think.

I think there's several reasons why it's running late:

1 - Building, building, building, then testing, testing, testing.
2 - I believe they started working with DX 9/10 but then moved to incorporate DX11, which would've taken time to implement.
3 - Last Christmas saw Cataclysm released, so there would've been no desire to release it at the same time as that.
4 - It's no lie that Cataclysm isn't the best expansion WoW's had. They've lost almost 700,000, maybe up to a million official subscribers, and there are even more just not playing anymore. It's possible that they're holding out as long as they can so that more people leave Cataclsym and they can hoover up those disgruntled players.
5 - They're likely also waiting for Rift to cool down a bit.

Also, I doubt it'll be 2012. Blizzcon this year (October I believe) will probably announce either the next World of Warcraft expansion, or Titan (their next MMO), so after that things will start snowballing against them once more. Q1 2012 is Mass effect 3 as easymark26 said, and they wouldn't draw it out after that because it's nearly ready (closed beta in progress, open beta starting soon, demos out, gameplay looking slick at E3) and hanging around will cost them money, and also because the later they leave it the closer it'll bring them to Blizzard's next MMO offering.

I'd venture a guess that it'll be a September/October/November release this year, though they'd be wise not to leave it as late as November because that's when Guild Wars 2 is released...

-Nih