EA: 200 hours of play per SWTOR class

By Robert Purchese Published 29 June, 2011

Excluding crafting, raiding, "the multiplayer".

Each of the six Star Wars: The Old Republic classes pack 200 hours of gameplay, EA has revealed - excluding crafting, raiding and "the multiplayer".

EA Games boss Frank Gibeau described the in-development MMO as "gigantic", although he wishes the game hadn't cost quite so much money to make.

"I don't pay much attention to that talk [of a $300 million budget] - I get a lot of questions from analysts and press about it," Gibeau told GamesIndustry.biz.

"What I try and concentrate on is, is it a good game and is it ready to go?

"You look at a game that has 200 hours of gameplay for each of the six classes, and that doesn't include the crafting, the raids, the multiplayer. It's vast. It's a gigantic game. And that costs money. But when you get one of these launched they persist for a long period of time."

Ultima Online, he said, still has "tens of thousands" of subscribers a decade on and "is widely profitable" for EA.

"It's just the nature of the beast that you have to build this amount of content," he added. "Do I wish it wasn't this expensive? Absolutely, but I think everybody does.

"At the same time it doesn't really do us much good to comment on how much it costs. Ultimately what matters is whether it's a good service and do people really like the game?"

BioWare opened an Austin, Texas studio in 2006 to create an MMO. BioWare unveiled the MMO as Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2008.

Since then, new owner EA has made no secret of The Old Republic's gargantuan cost, regularly referring to the MMO as its most expensive project ever. It wasn't until October 2010, however, that we got an inkling of just how expensive, when an anonymous insider named EA Louse claimed EA had spent $300 million on SWTOR.

EA big cheese John Riccitiello downplayed the rumour, however, telling investors that those numbers were "vastly higher than anything we've ever put in place".

But as development draws on, so will costs. Star Wars: The Old Republic has a tentative late-2011 release date. But with no beta date confirmed and presumably significant testing to do, that estimate may be hard to meet.

BioWare co-bosses Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka told Eurogamer the quality not only of SWTOR but also the associated service had to be right before EA will press go.

Star Wars: The Old Republic gameplay.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (38) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Crembo #1 11 months ago

    300$ millon? Damn, that must be a record in both video and movie industry.

  • TheDudesRug #2 11 months ago

    200 hours solo play isn't even close to cutting it for this type of game.

  • Jacksie66 #3 11 months ago

    $300 million. Thats more than our Irish government has in its back pocket...

  • Velvetmeds #4 11 months ago

    Just invite me for the beta, damn you.

  • Shikasama #5 11 months ago

    Eveerytime the word 'raids' is used in conjunction with this game I lose interest in it a little bit more.

    You'd think they'd have tried to come up with something a bit more interesting than 4 hour gear conveyor belts for the 'next gen' mmo.

  • bobfish09 #6 11 months ago

    200 hours is unrealistic.

    What does that mean?

    200 hours of storyline?

    200 hours to cap level with grinding/group content?

    200 hours including spending time on achievements?

    Stupid thing to say.

  • RodHull #7 11 months ago

    Pah. I did the Kessel run in less than 200 hours.
    Edited by RodHull at 29/06/11 @ 13:13

  • Apaar #8 11 months ago

    So... a Baldur's Gate trilogy-esque amount of gameplay/story content for each and every one of the classes. If I buy this game, contentwise I'll get at least 8 Baldur's Gate trilogies worth of gameplay volume, just in terms of leveling all the classes to the level cap? ... Let me just say I doubt that.

  • Murton #9 11 months ago

    200 hours sounds impressive, but as bobfish said, is that storyline gameplay or grind? Either way it pales in comparison to say, original SWG which could be argued to offer literally unlimited hours with it Raph Kosters freeflow profession system rather than primitive archetype class based gameplay.

    The more I hear about this game the more I see EQ in space and that just doesn't appeal to me.

  • Scopeh #10 11 months ago

    So is this a Single player game or an MMO?

  • mkreku #11 11 months ago

    200 hours per class! What they failed to mention is that it's 20 hours of story and 180 hours of grind.

  • crimsoneer #12 11 months ago

    EA has already said that each and every class will have the equivalent of 3 KOTOR games of storyline gameplay. So, yeah. Awesome.

  • Murton #13 11 months ago

    "So is this a Single player game or an MMO?" - consider is a hybrid like Guild Wars. The game is designed for single player play, but some content will require you to team up.

    @ SirFuzzyDunlop - agreed. I think part of the problem is that any Star Wars MMO is inevitably going to be compared to SWG and with a hardwired class system and EQ style interface this game represents everything SWG turned into rather than what it was and could have been. We'll never see an MMO like again unfortunately, hell we won't even see a regular RPG of that depth again.

  • WinterSnowblind #14 11 months ago

    @Scopeh
    That's a big issue I have with the game (haven't played it myself, so this isn't 100% fact) but it seems the multiplayer and single player content are completely isolated, almost like separate modes.

    They keep insisting that this is the sequel to KotOR fans have been waiting for, got to wonder if they plan on having some form of subscription free mode for those who just want the single player stuff.. Would seem like a smart idea, but they do seem dead set on making as much money from this game as possible.

  • Ryboy #15 11 months ago

    Er... 8 classes?!

  • Mockerre #16 11 months ago

    Sweet sweet 200 hours of bringing 10 bantha hides to the local jawas...

  • Ryboy #17 11 months ago

    And it is actually in beta right now. It's in invited beta testing in north America and will then be coming to Europe.

    Yet another profoundly inaccurate EG article.

  • frunk #18 11 months ago

    200 hours = 10 hours of rendered story footage, 20 hours of solid gameplay and 170 hours of tedious fetch quests...

    I know how these games work!

  • Spekingur #19 11 months ago

    How many of those hours are fun?

  • Gastrian #20 11 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • SAMagic #21 11 months ago

    I'm sure people could play Tetris for 200 hours, but I doubt everyone will agree such is fun. What's your point?

  • RockTwist #22 11 months ago

    As someone else pointed out, games in Beta and has been since last year. It's now in the stress testing phase.

    @WinterSnowBlind - The game is much the same as WoW in terms of mutliplayer, some quests/areas are phased (Behind a green 'door') but the vast majority of the worlds are multiplayer enabled.

    Probably not supposed to post this link but, loads of beta screenshots here: http://betacake.blogspot.com/2011/06/sta... , probably be taken down soon though.
    Edited by RockTwist at 29/06/11 @ 12:35

  • Inmediasress #23 11 months ago

    You just can't make a single player game and an MMo at the same time should have listened to their fans and made a Kotor 3 or a mass effect MMO.
    I just have to laugh how ready people are to swallow the PR bullshit, 200 hours of gameplay highly doubt it.
    Reminds me of how they lied unscrupulously about DA2, just so that people buy it but yes with all the voiceover and what not I start to believe that they spent somewhere along 200million for this crap.
    This will be some EPIC FAIL to be remembered for, altough if they spend another 100mill for marketing nonsense they can brainwash enough people to maybe have a chance.
    Edited by Inmediasress at 29/06/11 @ 12:53

  • DeaditeGirl #24 11 months ago

    I think Bioware have done a fantastic job of finally makin a true MMO-RPG. I'm just glad to finally see an MMO that delivers story to the same degree the likes of Dragon Age or Mass Effect have offered, whilst also allowing me to play said RPG content with my mates. ^_^

  • Bennicus #25 11 months ago

    200 hours of gameplay? Believe it when I see it. Reading fanfic-grade "story" and grinding fetch quests != gameplay for me.

  • dagas #26 11 months ago

    If that is 200h of quality game play this will be the best game ever. I loved KotOR 1 and 2. I really hope this will ge great.

  • g1208g #27 11 months ago

    Is this their first day of MMORPG business?
    200 hours enough?
    They just want to make the player monthly fee of a month?

  • apoc_reg #28 11 months ago

    Origin = zero game hours here...

  • MaybeLater #29 11 months ago

    The proof is in the pudding. You don't have to look far on the internet to find people's vehement guarantees that a game will be rubbish because of x, only to be proved a smurf upon release. How many Games look like they couldn't be anything but awesome before release and then for whatever reason they turn out to be lame? The same is true in reverse.

  • actionfitz #30 11 months ago

    I remember when light-sabres could cut things... the weapons in this game are more like luminescent sticks :/
    pretty, glowing truncheons of fail :/

  • dmt2 #31 11 months ago

    Silly question: is this pc only?

    I'd probably buy it if I could slouch on the sofa with the 360.

  • Claypole #32 11 months ago

    "But with no beta date confirmed" its been in beta for awhile, are you some sort of idiot?

  • Ixum #33 11 months ago

    think he means open beta, which isnt gonna happen btw.

  • rayscoota #34 11 months ago

    Ill leave this pile of doggie doodoo for the wow kiddies and stick with swg till the end then go retro from then onwards. good bye modern games been nice knowing you, not been nice knowing EG though.

  • BloodSaint #35 11 months ago

    @TheDudesRug 200 hours for each class is much more than what you'll get out of WoW, and please remember that this isn't including 'the raid mode' and multiplayer :o

  • Meto #36 11 months ago

    I did the Kessel run in less than 200 hours.
    @RodHull it's not the time that matters, it's the distance.

    Anyway, another shameless plug for this game by the devs themselves...

    I was actually hoping they wouldn't use the R word, but they did...

  • Peter_LIAR_Molyneux #37 11 months ago

    I remember EA and Bioware hyping Dragon Age 2 up to be the second coming of RPGs. I was an idiot for believing it even though I had reservations but since I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins I took a chance and went against my instincts. I see the exact same thing happening here and I'm not about to let EA and Bioware promise me one thing and deliver something vastly different.

  • ScepticMatt #38 11 months ago

    the $300 million claim was FALSE.

    Source: Eurogamer :)
    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-0...