BioWare: SW:TOR to last for "decades"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 25 July, 2011

Wants to add dozens of worlds post launch.

BioWare hopes massively multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic will last for decades.

The game has 19 major worlds, senior creative director James Ohlen said during a Comic-Con panel reported by the wonderfully-named Darth Hater.

"Well, I can say that we have 19 major worlds," he said. "Then we have an indeterminate number of minor worlds. And our goal, obviously this being an online game, that we're hoping is going to last for decades, we're going to be, obviously, adding more to the galaxy map as the game progresses.

"We want to add dozens of worlds. Hundreds of worlds eventually. In 2025, we'll hopefully have 500 worlds."

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

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.

Last week publisher EA confirmed a 2011 release date for The Old Republic.

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About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 7 months ago

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  • Rack #1 7 months ago

    I give it 8 months.

  • Steve2911 #2 7 months ago

    The 500 worlds thing was said jokingly. Who'd fail to understand that?
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/11 @ 13:58

  • midnight_walker #3 7 months ago

    Decades, or until EA decide to turn the servers off, whichever comes first.

  • thiagots85 #4 7 months ago

    A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

  • Subdominator #5 7 months ago

    The higher they climb, the deeper they fall. Even if they only climb high in PR talk. I don't see this getting more than 500k subscriptions. MMORPGS need Asia to be successful. Star Wars has never been an IP that does great in Asia.
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/11 @ 14:04

  • TeeHee #6 7 months ago

    Ah hahahaha! no.

  • Mantrata #7 7 months ago

    *cough* Earth and Beyond *cough* another EA i'm bored with this turn it off fail waiting to happen... and if BioWare are using any of the developers that worked on Warhammer Online after acquiring Mythic expect bugs, imbalances and class/race favoritism...
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/11 @ 14:14

  • Seafort #8 7 months ago

    I think bioware/EA think they've got a great MMO on their hands here where ppl will stay around after their class story finishes.

    They are gonna get a massive shock when half their subscriber base leaves after 2-3 months because there is nothing left to do at end game.
    This is a single player rpg with MMO tagged on so they can justify a subscription, which no one knows the price of as yet.

  • Nighthaunter #9 7 months ago

    Good job posting some random out of context quotes...

  • Phishfood #10 7 months ago

    This is going to be awesome after my nap in suspended animation

  • jstar #11 7 months ago

    This game genuinely looks like it will be utterly shit.



  • Brenders #12 7 months ago

    @Steve2911

    Completely agree! He said it as a throw away joke and there were laughs from the audience who took it as such. I would have thought EG would only report from reputable sources; as it stands this is a non story aside from the third paragraph. I wonder if EG will be attending Comic Con next year considering they've been slow to the table with the news.

  • Toaster05 #13 7 months ago

    I am the only person to have noticed a flaw in Bioware's logic?

    In the Star Wars universe all planets are only allowed to have one topographical feature. Hoth = Ice Endor = Forest Tattooine = Desert etc..

    After 50 or so worlds they are going to have to start combining features and this will anger the bearded one as he hates duality.

    It just won't work.

  • Seoh #14 7 months ago

    @ Subdominator, thats an excellent point about Aisa, i hadn't thought about how this would perform over there.

    Thing is it's star wars and even if its just WoW with a star wars skin there will be a large loyal population, SW galaxies had a very loyal following. It really just depends if EA is happy with a sub million population or if anything less than 12 mill is a seen as a failure.

  • joe90 #15 7 months ago

    I find your lack of faith...

    /yawn..

  • dutzan #16 7 months ago

    "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."

    And I wish they put even more money into making the game better and less in marketing it. Once the woed is out that the game is solid gold, ppl will come. On the other hand if they hear it's not... APB flashbacks..

  • Vampyre_Warrior #17 7 months ago

    Well Space-Wow euhm I mean TOR is not going to last very long I'm afraid. I get the same sense as with Warhammer Online. Looks amazing but will end up being empty and on a straight path to F2P.

    Like Rack said, 8 months!

  • Bennicus #18 7 months ago

    Perhaps make a good game first before worrying about how popular it will be in 10 years +

  • marmaduke #19 7 months ago

    Christ, even World of Warcraft has gone (partially) free to play now that everyone's bored of it. At least there weren't any cutscenes to skip- "See my brother, Yoda Substitute Q, in the next valley you must- but only after ten Taun-Taun skins you find"

    Any game where it takes eight hours to upgrade your shoes from 'broken' to 'made of leather' is not worth playing.

  • bad09 #20 7 months ago

    I just want this thing to hurry up and die so I can get KOTOR3. Just re-installed KOTOR this weekend such a wicked RPG, such a shame they ruined the series by making an MMO hardly any KOTOR fans wanted :(

  • Gambit1977 #21 7 months ago

    If I could play this on mac id have given it a go.

  • Ryboy #22 7 months ago

    Why does everyone get so up tight about this game? Is it because it actually has a real chance of being fucking awesome?

  • MaybeLater #23 7 months ago

    Proof- pudding. I'm guessing a substantial slice of the fabled astronomical budget went into paying industry professionals to belay the highly predictable and blindingly obvious pitfalls inherent in the MMO market. Trouble is I can't decide whether to give them the benefit of the doubt and try the game out when it's released or go with the unsubstantiated, feckless blathering of the mighty haruspices who populate the Eurogamer comments section by assuming and then informing anyone who will listen that 'I know it's gonna be lame' before it's even released. Choices, Choices ...

  • Lemming81 #24 7 months ago

    When it's under Ł30 and Origin has been dismantled because it failed miserably let's say...in a year. Then I'll buy your game, so let's hope it does last long, eh?


    "Why does everyone get so up tight about this game? Is it because it actually has a real chance of being fucking awesome?"


    Have you been under a rock during the fiasco around overpricing and pre-orders not being honoured? The game might be the best thing in the world, but it doesn't stop gamers being rightly pissed off at how this has all been set up commercially.
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/11 @ 15:16

  • Subdominator #25 7 months ago

    The F2P thing is quite interesting. I remember EA saying some months ago that F2P is the future for them. Might there be a chance that they sell the game and have it be F2P after that? That would sure increase the number of players and F2P players end up actually spending more money on a game than subscribers. Then again with this being EA I'm pretty sure they are taking the standard approach, they don't have the balls to experiment with F2P on such a large scale, do they?

    The main problem I see is hardware requirements. WoW could be played on everything from low end systems to netbooks to high end gaming rigs. TOR is supposed to require a decent PC. That's already gotta hurt them. Star Wars Galaxies had a strong fanbase but that could be counted in the thousands. Not the millions that EA wants to reach with TOR. Star Wars Galaxies sold 1.5 million copies but they never had more than 300.000 subscribers. And the number has been going down from 2004 continuously.

  • geeza2020 #26 7 months ago

    I hope it crashes and burns as quickly as possible so we can hopefully have a proper KOTOR game again, instead of this money grabbing shite. Although after Dragon Age 2, I'm not sure if Bioware have it in them to make a decent RPG anymore :(

  • maktah #27 7 months ago

    BW/EA is betting on 12 million players wanting to watch badly animated cartoon heads having a conversation, and pay a subscription fee for the privilege.
    I think 95% of the players will skip those parts so they can get quicky to the combat -- which feels like and afterthought, something like a cheap WoW clone.

    Sure the game will have a population of rabid fanboys, but that's going to be about the same as Star Trek Online I'm afraid. And because the game cost so much to make, it's going to go bust soon. Over 1 million players during the first month, less than 100k after that, levelling out to around 20-30k after a year.

  • Daeltaja #28 7 months ago

    The fans will decide how long it lasts, not you.

  • rudedudejude #29 7 months ago

    Hmmm... after so many years the SW universe just seems a bit boring and stale.

    If you can go to Ja Ja's homeworld and slaughter all of the gungans it might be fun for half hour I suppose.

    Lightsabers are sooo eighties

  • MaybeLater #30 7 months ago

    @Maktah I'm loving your figures, they really give credence to your not at all reductive opinions.

    It will be interesting to see how effective the implementation of the 'fourth pillar' is, whether other aspects have suffered at its expense and how it shapes out in the long term. So many of the traditional storytelling devices which work so well in other formats simply won't translate into a persistent game environment. If the writers pull it off it will be quite some feat.

  • Ryboy #31 7 months ago

    This entire thread will lead us all to the dark side.

  • Inmediasress #32 7 months ago

    Haha good joke.
    This will have such a big hype train that afterwards if not else people will be dissapointed becouse of the massive overhype.
    I can't await to see the disapointed masses just like LA Noire all talk and no walk.

  • login_name #33 7 months ago

    Having actually played it, I'm looking forward to it. I'm just hoping they don't take the piss too much with the sub fee. Any more than WoW and I won't be playing. Not with GW2 just around the corner (which is what I'm really waiting for).

  • thelzdking #34 7 months ago

    New single-player KotOR please.

  • Miths #35 7 months ago

    I was under the impress that this is KOTOR 3 with some multiplayer features tagged on? :)

    Actually I have only sporadically been following the development of this game, but I definitely plan on giving it a try. However I also fully expect me to get bored with it within a few months, but that's pretty much happened with every single MMO I've ever played over the last ten years (the original SWG and EVE are the only two I remember playing for a bit more than three or four months).
    I'm perfectly fine with a month or two worth of entertainment though, although I do suspect most people probably expect somewhat more from an MMO - which this game may or may not deliver.

  • Quixz #36 7 months ago

    Will play the free trail then wait patiently for it to become F2P. :D

  • darkmorgado #37 7 months ago

    @Subdominator

    Star Wars has never been an IP that does great in Asia.

    What? Star Wars is bloody huge in the east.

  • levitate #38 7 months ago

    I'm as excited about this as bystanders are when there's been a huge road accident.

  • ircaddicts #39 7 months ago

    This will be lucky to last a year if that. Sure it will open HUGE but give it 3-4 months max and watch it crash and crash HARD

  • Gastrian #40 7 months ago

    With all the people complaining about the pre-order access you'd swear people never heard of WoW. Before WoW was released you had to pay Ł5 for access to the beta test (this was taken off your retail purchase of the full game) and then had your characters wiped prior to the game going live. Blizzard also failed to release their collectors edition in the UK.

  • Subdominator #41 7 months ago

    @darkmorgado If that would be true, why won't they release TOR in Asia?

  • darkmorgado #42 7 months ago

    Are you serious? Think of the sheer amount of localisation that would entail. It probably will get released eventually, but I doubt at this point they want to bog themselves down and delay the game for another year in order to sort out Japanese, Chinese, Korean etc voice overs, let alone the text.

  • jetsetdemo #43 7 months ago

    Utter pants, but I will still sub just for the crack. Will you ?

  • cheeky_BILLY #44 7 months ago

    I have a bad feeling about this..

  • Jedikillar #45 7 months ago

    I feel as though people might should actually play the game before they say it will crash and burn. Me and a bunch of other WoW fanboys who got bored who would play anything better than galaxies that has the star wars name on it will keep this game going, likely with at least 500,00 subs, hopefully more. It's unrealistic to look for a WoW amount of subs. 500,000 is a good amount for an mmo, not counting WoW.
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/11 @ 20:02

  • Meto #46 7 months ago

    Yet another gushing interview with the developers themselves...

    What I can't figure out is what they spent that money on. It certainly wasn't the collector's edition.

  • hiddenranbir #47 7 months ago

    The worlds will be as copy pasty as the ones in ME I imagine.

  • FortysixterUK #48 7 months ago

    For some reason some elements of that raid reminded me of the Herod battle in Scarlet Monastery.

    Anyway, here's hoping this MMO takes off....not many have really, except for WOW, Eve and.......( Insert next big thing here ).

    Here's hoping.

  • Stratix #49 7 months ago

    200 hours of different gameplay, or 200 hours of the same? I fail to believe the former is true and the latter is somewhat misleading. I know there are class quests but I can't see there being that many of them!

    As wow developers say, class based quests are expensive because it is 6x the work to keep everyone happy in this case.