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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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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lothdk 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.Reply -
it's EA at the last second they will pull the plug on the PC version and release it on the Nintendo wiiReply
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mattfoo2324 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.Reply -
skit75 ohh man.... I may have to re-sub my SWG account for a 'fix'. Please say it isn't so! hehehReply -
killerclick I'd never play a MMO. I like single player games and if the AI is stupid then that's the thing to fix.Reply -
waikano "Let's hope the financial burden doesn't cause the publisher to implode before Q4 2011."Reply
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. -
edilee 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.Reply
I hope TOR is an awesome MMO and I am signed up for the beta and cannot wait! -
methal I say they can take all the time they need (within a couple years of course) to make it as good as possible.Reply -
Supertrek32 Let's hope the financial burden doesn't cause the publisher to implode before Q4 2011.Reply
It's EA. It should read:
Let's hope the financial burden causes the publisher to implode before Q4 2011.