According to sources quoted by MCV.com, Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out a bit later than originally thought. MCV's "development sources" say that SW: TOR's release date is in September. While no official release date has ever been announced, comments made by EA head John Riccitiello suggested a Spring 2011 release date was likely.
No matter when The Old Republic hits stores, there's a lot riding on this game. It's a game release on a massive scale -- the scale of a combination of developer's-developer Bioware and the Star Wars Universe in a persistent game can not be overstated. So there's a lot on the positive side of the ledger for SW: TOR... but there are some pretty huge negatives as well.
Challenged facing The Old Republic:
- There's the cost of developing a full-scale MMO. Supposedly, over 300 million bucks have already been spent on building The Old Republic, so they'll need a lot of subscriptions.
- There is already a Star Wars MMO. People who follow the gaming industry closely might understand how different a Bioware Star Wars MMO is from SOE's Star Wars: Galaxies, but will the average consumer?
- World of Warcraft: the huge variety of people who play MMOs play World of Warcraft. Will The Old Republic be able to lure enough hardcore WoW-heads to make their nut?
What do you guys think? Are you ready for Star Wars: The Old Republic?
Lead me, FOLLOW ME, or get out of my way. - General George Patton