EA: Star Wars Old Republic MMO Beyond Q2'11
EA confirms that Star Wars: The Old Republic won't hit the market until after March 31, 2011.
During EA's Q3 earnings call last night, the publisher confirmed that BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMO will not make the publisher's next financial year. This means that fans will not see the game until sometime after March 31, 2011. The call verifies a previous forecast laid out by EA and LucasArts that Star Wars: The Old Republic was slated for an April or May 2011 release.
"We are not assuming that we bring a major new MMO to market in fiscal '11," said EA Chief financial Officer Eric Brown. "We will continue to increase significant development cost as we prepare this title for launch."
According to VG247, EA CEO John Riccitiello added that the MMO is a huge investment for the publisher, claiming that the costs involved are "gigantic." Gamers should brace themselves for the possibility that the game could be pushed back to the latter part of 2011 due to the significant cost. "MMOs can cost as much as two to six, seven times as much as a front-line title, if they’re done right," he said.
Despite the costs, Brown reassured the callers that the game will be repaid in full. "I think the important point here is you ask that title goes live, and we’re not giving any specific date, we’ll move from a net OpEx investment mode to a highly profitable op-income contributor," he said. "So it's a pretty important step change, when you compare a year with the MMO active versus the development stage that we’re currently in this fiscal year."
Let's hope the financial burden doesn't cause the publisher to implode before Q4 2011.
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I play MMOs almost exclusively, and will likely give TOR a try, however EA hasn't exactly a stellar record when it comes to MMOs, hopefully they wont ruin this one.
it's EA at the last second they will pull the plug on the PC version and release it on the Nintendo wii
If they would make the graphics look like something from the last 5 years, I would consider it. Seriously, invest the money into making it look half-way decent. WoW looked better than this when it was first released.
ohh man.... I may have to re-sub my SWG account for a 'fix'. Please say it isn't so! heheh
I'd never play a MMO. I like single player games and if the AI is stupid then that's the thing to fix.
"Let's hope the financial burden doesn't cause the publisher to implode before Q4 2011."
Dragon Age just went Triple Platinum. I don't think 1 year of expenses is going to kill this one. Not to mention their 1.1 Billion in Cash Assets.
With all the personal at EA and all it's partnered development studios being/been laid off I will be suprised if will live up to what we want it to be. Mythic joined EA and it has been a downhill slide every since and Warhammer is in a bad state. They laid off the new content department so it woul dbe safe to say there will be no expansion content. Things that need fixing are going to take some time to be addressed also.
I hope TOR is an awesome MMO and I am signed up for the beta and cannot wait!
Give us KOTOR III.
I say they can take all the time they need (within a couple years of course) to make it as good as possible.
Let's hope the financial burden doesn't cause the publisher to implode before Q4 2011.
It's EA. It should read:
Let's hope the financial burden causes the publisher to implode before Q4 2011.
I say they can take all the time they need (within a couple years of course) to make it as good as possible.
First off guys. This game is being made by Bioware. Every thing they touched has turned to gold and they are most likely my favorite devolpers. They are just got swallowed up by EA. EA is paying the bills but Bioware is making the game.
Well, I was hoping this game would come out before Cataclysm, but I'd imagine Cataclysm will be out this year which will prolly be taking up all my time when TOR comes out. Bummer.
I guess I might try Star Trek Online, depends on the final Kotaku review for me tho
I am not into MMOs but a Bioware Star Wars one...it will be hard for me to resist.
Also, all the nubbies complaining about EA (yes, I agree they suck) should note the game is being made by Bioware. Bioware is the shiz naz.
Sounds like a solid plan for EA, it gives them a chance to steal the good stuff from star trek online and improve on the other things.
Sounds like a solid plan for EA, it gives them a chance to steal the good stuff from star trek online and improve on the other things.
Dude....It's being made by Bioware.
Bioware sets the standard in their games, others copy them. Their worst games are far better then most other developers "Greatest Hit".
Give us KOTOR III.
I agree, both KOTOR were good, buggy crash prone but very fun. As far as pay a monthly fee to run around with a bunch of kiddies, no thanks.
GEE! That seems like an awful long time to wait for a game. But what the heck! I'm still waiting for ther new version of Duke Nukem.
And I still don't give a crap about it. They could've and should've made KOTOR3 instead.
If they would make the graphics look like something from the last 5 years, I would consider it. Seriously, invest the money into making it look half-way decent. WoW looked better than this when it was first released.
Agreed. Bioware already has the technology to make games with good graphics that run on modest system requirements. They should use it to improve TOR's terrible graphics.
See Dragon Age for example. My 2006 PC with 2.2 GHZ AMD single core, 7800 GT and 2 GB of RAM runs it flawlessly on medium settings, even when the screen is filled with darkspawns. And Medium on Dragon Age looks a lot better than what we currently see from TOR.
A 2011 game like TOR should look at least as good as a 2008 game like Aion.
And 2011, that will be 2 years after DirectX 11 was released...
I think EA must be beginning to struggle a bit for cash; perhaps because of this. Just recently it was uncovered that some of their other titles aren't getting ported to PC. Things must be tight at EA indeed.
MMO's consume too much of your life and most of the people online are are irritating. The subscriptions are especially irritating. Give me single player games I can beat in 20+/- hours like all of Biowares other awesome stuff.
They could churn out 5 awesome single player games or this one MMO. Bioware shouldn't waste their time.
Not everyone plays online. EA is dense.
ME2 is fantastic.
Give us KOTOR III.
Couldn't agree more. And leave Mass Effect well alone also while you're at it... We don't need another George Lucas in the games industry. DLC is fine, but don't go ruining perfectly good franchises just by chasing the WoW cash cow.
Round hole, square peg? Some games just work better offline- especially story driven games like Mass Effect. If it ain't broke then don't fix it!