BioWare confirms SWTOR for spring 2011

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 January, 2010

No specific date, but that's the target.

BioWare has confirmed that it is "targeting" spring 2011 for the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Yesterday EA boss John Riccitiello said to expect a "major MMO" in that timeframe, but wouldn't elaborate.

"While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars: The Old Republic," BioWare's Sean Dahlberg wrote on the official forum.

"We've got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It's not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today.

"We can't wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details."

Or John Riccitiello's conference calls!

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Lee_Morris #1 2 years ago

    Skeggsy = helpful.

    Anyway, I think this is going to be be my first MMO so the murmerings I heard of this being being just a bog standard MMO with good scripting won't really bother me.

  • mikeck #2 2 years ago

    I had a brief 15 minutes hand-on a couple of months ago...looks very good, even at this stage...can't wait to hopefully get into a beta test stage. Then it won't feel so long until the full blown release

  • penhalion #3 2 years ago

    Bugger! I was all excited until I noticed the K missing from SWTOR......I sadly was expecting some announcement for a new Knights of the Old Republic.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #4 2 years ago

    @Skeg - find yesterday's topic and read the comments WoW is NOT the MMO to 'beat' many have tried and failed NOT because the game is 'the best' it's because to get those subcription numbers on ANY OTHER MMO is near impossible, 500k is all you need, Blizzard lucked out with the hole in the MMO market for normal gamers, between that playerbase towting 'WoW is the best' and 99% of the gamers expecting any MMO to be 'as good as' WoW plus it's 5 year head start from DAY ONE, again it's impossible to get that '11 million'..

    WoW is the exception to the rule when it comes to MMO not the standard going after it near enough means a substandard product and a below required playerbase, devs (and players) need to ignore WoW and look at the market as a whole.
    Edited by 1 at 13/01/10 @ 09:55

  • loopy #5 2 years ago

    Ok, I can't resist:

    "Stay on target!"

    .... sorry. ;)

  • Murton #6 2 years ago

    I still contend that the game would have been better content-wise if set in the New Republic rather than Old. A much more interesting part of the timeline in my opinion.

    As far as competing with WoW is concerned, a successful and sustainable subscription MMO only needs half a million and only a fool would bet against Bioware hitting that target. I reckon they'll take a sizable chunk of the market, it won't be a WoW killer as such but it'll certainly hold its own.

  • Fillem #7 2 years ago

    "It's a traaaap!"

  • sneetch #8 2 years ago

    @Murton
    As far as competing with WoW is concerned, a successful and sustainable subscription MMO only needs half a million and only a fool would bet against Bioware hitting that target. I reckon they'll take a sizable chunk of the market, it won't be a WoW killer as such but it'll certainly hold its own.

    I reckon they'll get the numbers, initially at least, whether or not they can retain them is another thing altogether. From the various previews I've seen I find it hard to see the MM part of this MMO, designed as it is to be playable solo. If people end up playing it as a single-player game (with a monthly fee) then I think subscription numbers will drop off fairly rapidly. The end-game will decide a lot.

  • actionfitz #9 2 years ago

    but I want it now :(
    Edited by 1 at 13/01/10 @ 13:54

  • Invisible_Cow #10 2 years ago

    This has the potential to be the best new MMO for a long time, IMO. On the other hand, it could crash and burn. I'm quietly hopeful.
    FWIW, I too would have preferred a new KOTOR.

  • _Price_ #11 2 years ago

    Yep: and KotOR III is confirmed for....

    /hopeless optimism

  • Murton #12 2 years ago

    Sneetch: all MMOs have gone down the solo path, it's a sad state of affairs really where people would rather play online games by themselves than with other peopl. As for retention it's not a huge issue, most people stick with MMOs long after they're bored by them because they've made friends there that they don't want to lose or because they don't want to lose all that progress and basically admit to themselves in wasting so much of their free time. 6 months to a year seems to be the golden figure, if you can keep them interested that long their sense of achievement and guild will do most of the retention work for you.

    This is Bioware's first step into the MMO arena so I'm sure they've set their targets on sustainability rather than a misguided challenge on WoW's dominance. Realistically speaking they need to aim their sights at besting Star Trek Online and Lego Universe in order to become best newcomer and then expand from there.