Star Wars: The Old Republic Message Board older than one year ago

#starwars That's right; less than a month before the start of early access and I've finally made it into the beta test for Star Wars: The Old Republic. That leave me a weekend to learn all I can about one character class. The question is, which one? More »

BioWare has revealed that last weekend saw over one million hours of combined play time among Star Wars: The Old Republic beta testers. According to BioWare co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, tens of thousands of players have already tried out the game. "This weekend we had a big test. Ten...

#starwars This fan took to a Star Wars: The Old Republic questionnaire with a mission: rant about publisher EA's digital rights management policy. More »

If you happened to pre-order Star Wars: The Old Republic, set to launch on December 20, here's some news for you: BioWare has announced you'll have five days of advance access before the masses jump in on launch day...

#starwars Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't even out yet, but already the merchandising machine is kicking into high gear. And there's no gear higher than "life-sized replica statue" gear. More »

#starwars It's Republic versus Empire, good versus not-so-good, and most importantly, player versus player onboard the legendary prototype Imperial ship, Voidstar. Sabers up, everyone! More »

Playing as a Jedi Knight in the beta for BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic, I had a specific goal in mind; I was going to be a neutral force in the universe. Instead of aligning myself with the typical Jedi Light side of the Force or going out of my way to be completely malevolent, I tended to b...

Nick Kolan: The Star Wars universe is a vast and varied place. It's a place where entire planets are dominated by a single meteorological phenomenon, where a planet can be covered by a single continuous city or eternal drought. It's also a universe with an extremely rich history. Making a varied and...

Massively multiplayer games like The Old Republic live and die based on how well they encourage different players to mingle and work together. Creating interesting group content isn't simply a reason to ramping up enemy health and damage, it's about requiring players to think about how they use their skills in conjunction with each another...

A lot has been made of The Old Republic's story elements. Every quest you pick up is tied to a fully voice-acted sequence that gives you the context you need to feel motivated, and conversation choices make you feel as though you have an impact on what happens to the characters you interact with. ...

Every time I quit an MMO, it's usually for the same reason. The sense of context eventually breaks down; I feel like I'm scraping items off dead enemies for no reason, trapped in some insane machine, doomed to repeat assembly line behavior until I achieve some virtual goal that lets me do it again, ...

WoW may be the big announcement today -- and Diablo 3 the big special edition news -- but EA would like to remind you about another huge MMO coming out, and another special edition. In this video, the collector's edition unboxes itself. It's actually a bit creepy.

I’ve had access to The Old Republic for the last couple of weeks. Which is good. Below is the first of a series of articles I’m going to write about it, thinking about different aspects, and playing as different Republic classes. Today it’s Jedi Knight, and just how it is that BioWare’s moral choices and quest styles fit into a massively multiplayer world.

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IGN has been tooling around in the Old Republic beta for the last week or two, and we're just about ready to spew forth (in the best way possible) a whole heap of information. Tomorrow at 9 AM Pacific you can look forward to a pile of new content. Then starting Monday (the 24th) and lasting through ...

#starwars At New York Comic-Con last week, I found a case full of Star Wars: The Old Republic stuff. Not the video game. The stuff. Books, comics, statues, and even Razer's Old Republic mouse and headset (apologies for not being sure it was Razer's in the video. It is!) More »

#starwars My biggest problem now with Star Wars: The Old Republic is that I recently switched my home computer to a Mac. This is a problem, because, several months after I first played it... years after it was first hyped.. I finally want to play Star Wars: The Old Republic, this December's PC-only massive Star Wars game. More »

When twas announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic was releasing on the 22nd December in Europe, people stared at the screen and mumbled, “But… Christmas?” Admittedly it was only slightly louder mumbling than that from America, where the given date was the 20th. An odd choice, presumably trying to capture that elusive, “I hate my family” market, but one that’s at least been made slightly less odd by bringing them together. Us EU types will now be seeing the game on the same day as you US types, which both acknowledges that there are no oceans on the internet, and that people might want to get to level 15 before Santa arrives. How do we know this? Joystiq told us so. We’ll have lots of lovely new SW:TOR info for you in a few days.

Previously slated for release December 20 in North America and 22 in Europe, EA and BioWare scootch the Euro release of The Old Republic back two days, unlocking the coveted 'global launch' marketing phrase. It's global! More »

Star Wars: The Old Republic will now launch simultaneously in Europe and North America on December 20. The news comes from BioWare community manager Stephen Reid who just hosted a Star Wars panel at New York Comic Con with the new date.

Europe was originally expected to wait an agonizing extra couple of days while North American players showed off their pretty new lightsabers. It would seem staffing EA's customer service center in Ireland is moving along smoothly.

Grab your lightsabers -- Star Wars: The Old Republic is just about two months away -- for everyone. Today, a cavalcade of developers from BioWare took the New York Comic-Con stage to talk about the MMO. They also announced that the December 20, 2011 is the release date for the entire world and not j...

That disturbance in the Force you feel isn't an exploding planet, it's a horde of Star Wars fans rushing to their computers to see if they've made it into the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta. BioWare has announced that the second SWTOR "Beta Testing Weekend" will begin on October 7 and run through October 11.

Invites for this weekend have already been sent, and new testers have been pulled from the US, Canada and European launch countries. In other words, Sith and Republic hopefuls may want to check their inboxes.

Anyone feeling left out can sign up for future beta tests right here.

BioWare has begun to expand the beta for Star Wars: The Old Republic...

#starwars Tens of thousands of people on the mailing list for BioWare's Old Republic MMO received an email earlier today that basically said "hey, how's that beta treating you?". Even though they weren't in the beta. More »

Following up its tax incentive-fueled studio opening in Austin, Texas, EA this morning revealed the opening of a new customer service center in business friendly Galway, Ireland. When fully staffed, "BioWare Ireland" will task approximately 400 employees with making this year's big BioWare release go as smoothly as possible, employing primarily customer service agents. Star Wars: The Old Republic is set to launch December 20 in North America, and December 22 in Europe, so the service center is opening just in time for business.

During a speech at the grand opening, BioWare co-head Ray Muzyka called out to potential employees across all parts of Europe to join BioWare's Ireland team. "We've got a solid base of people here already in Galway ... we're looking for more. From Ireland ... from the rest of Europe to support our German and French customers ... from all over the world. We want you to join us here at BioWare Ireland." Muzyka was no doubt trying to fill out the studio's current staff of 200, which is expected to double at full capacity.

BioWare's Galway service center marks the first installation the company will operate outside of North America. So, uh, aside from the dramatically lowered business tax, it's Europe! Sweet!

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a release date: December 20th in North America and on December 22nd in the Europe. Speaking at the Eurogamer Expo, Bioboss Ray Muzyka said: “This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game. We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release.” No problem, Ray! We had plenty of other games to play, to be fair.

Pricing was also revealed this weekend:

1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99) 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97) 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

The three founders of BioWare: Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Dr. Ray Muzyka, and Dr. Anakin Skywalker

Electronic Arts has issued a press release confirming a late December release for BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. The game will become widely available on December 20 in North America (five days after the shutdown of Star Wars: Galaxies), with the European release trailing a bit on December 22. Previously, word from EA was that the company was hoping to get the game on shelves this year, but that it would definitely be out before the end of March.

The company also took the time to reiterate the game's pricing structure, which follows the classic formula of $14.99/month with discounts for paying in advance for three- or six-month chunks. Pre-ordering players will also get "Early Game Access." That seems like a weird thing for them to capitalize like that, but the main point is that there don't appear to be any details just yet about when that access begins. Over on the game's official boards, where people are wondering the same thing, the response from Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman is as follows:

"We don’t have any new information regarding Early Game Access to share at this time. We know everyone is very excited about the release date announcement (we are, too!) and that you can’t wait to get in the game! The beginning of Early Game Access will depend on a number of factors, including results from our Game Testing Program and Pre-Orders, but there will be multiple days of access."

A quick scan of those message boards also makes it look like there are still plenty of people clamoring to get into the game's beta testing program, with more news about another wave of invites--which are likely to include European players--coming in what I imagine will have to be the relatively near future.

As for us, I'd like to do a series of regular videos that involve us playing the game for a somewhat extended period of time, sort of like we did for Star Trek Online. We'll have to see how that goes, because a December 20 release date puts it pretty close to our crazy Game of the Year process as well as, you know, Christmas and stuff.

After many galactic ages, Electronic Arts has finally announced a release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it's not too far, far away. The long-awaited MMO will officially launch later this year on December 20 in North America and on December 22 in Europe.

In addition to the release date, the game's pricing structure has also been revealed. The subscription options should look very familiar to World of Warcraft vets, starting at $15 for a single month, $42 for three months or $78 for six months. Oh, and if you want early access, there's still time to pre-order, of course.

Thankfully, there's also still time to come up with an excuse for skipping out on your family's holiday plans.

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]

#starwars Star Wars: The Old Republic launches on Dec. 20 in North America and Dec. 22 in European territories, Bioware and LucasArts said this morning. More »

#starwars Star Wars: The Old Republic launches on Dec. 20 in North America and Dec. 22 in Eurpean territories, Bioware and LucasArts said this morning. More »

It appears those who pre-ordered Star Wars: The Old Republic are getting update notifications from Best Buy informing them of a release date change. The previous placeholder date of 12/31/2011 was changed to 12/20/2011...