Star Wars: TOR Delayed to Spring 2011?

[John Funk]

Star Wars: TOR Delayed to Spring 2011?

In yesterday's EA earnings call, CEO John Riccitiello said the company had a "major new MMO" coming in Spring '11. Could he mean anything other than Star Wars: The Old Republic [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Knights-Old-Republic-Xbox/dp/B000067DPM/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1280866180&sr=1-1]?

In the same conference call in which EA lowered estimates for 2010 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97404-EA-Comeback-Taking-Longer-Than-Expected], John Riccitiello mentioned that he expected 2011 to be a good year, in part due to the launch of the publisher's "major new MMO" in the spring. Of course, that's mainly softening the blow from the news that the game in question - presumably Star Wars: The Old Republic, given that EA has nothing else quite so high-profile under its wings - won't be coming out in 2010 as previously announced.

The Bad News: Well, it's a delay of a hugely-anticipated game that many are expecting to be a cross between Super Mario and Jesus to deliver them from the dominance of WoW [http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Pc/dp/B000067FDW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278969746&sr=1-3]. Despite Riccitiello's optimism, this can't be good news for EA, given that a delay just means a longer development budget (gotta pay those designers!) and a longer wait before we see a return on investment.

The Good News: A delay until Spring '11 means that SW: TOR avoids going head-to-head against the even more hugely-anticipated Diablo III [http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Cataclysm-Pc/dp/B002I0HKIU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1279055686&sr=1-1] (haha, yeah right).

When GameSpot [http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6245213.html] asked for clarification if Riccitiello had meant TOR, the answer came back (and naturally, it was a "no comment"): "No further comment beyond what John said. This wasn't a comment about a specific franchise, but a notation on how we are building a plan and guidance for the next fiscal year."

Yeah, but let's be fair here: Do you really think EA was talking about APB [http://www.amazon.com/All-Points-Bulletin-Pc/dp/B002BS480M/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1280866279&sr=1-1] or Need for Speed: World Online?

(Joystiq [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ea-to-release-major-mmo-in-spring-2011])

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[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[David Bray]

Good. Give me time to get a job and become a rich millionaire till you take my life, wife, and money away.
I can't wait.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Good. It's going to get better and better!

Seriously, nothing will make me feel bad about this game.

Shut up, Furburt! If you say that, God will want to mess with you and include Hayden Christensen in the game!

Just say that this sucks and God will be pleased

 

[moose49408]

Interesting... I wasn't even aware that it had a projected release date. Well, if it takes them a few months longer to make a better game, I'm willing to give them the time.

In memorium: Kotor 2
Lest we Forget...

 

[Jared]

Well, certainly not news I didnt expect to hear. Wouldnt be an MMO if no kind of delays didnt come along, and even more so from EA.

Well, lets hope they use the time to polish the product and make it all shinny for us!

 

[Swaki]

hopefully that means they can polish it some more so we will need fewer patches before it being good.

 

[Pirce]

NOOOOO!!1!

With a one even, that's how distraught I am.

 

[Eldarion]

What's the matter? The old republic afraid to go toe to toe with WoW?

 

[Pirce]

What's the matter? The old republic afraid to go toe to toe with WoW?

No no no no no, I just figured it out. You see the reason why the game seems to be taking so long is that they didn't actually start working on it until the day the swtor site went up.

 

[Skizle]

Well, certainly not news I didnt expect to hear. Wouldnt be an MMO if no kind of delays didnt come along, and even more so from EA.

Well, lets hope they use the time to polish the product and make it all shinny for us!

Yes we don't want EA to make the same mistakes they did with WAR on this game.
"Wow people really like this game. lets release it a year ealy!"
"But we havent finished adding four of the classes we promesed or polish up on some of the glitches or the memory leak"
"So what? We can make millions within the first month. Finalize everything and get it ready to ship!"

 

[Danpascooch]

Good. It's going to get better and better!

Seriously, nothing will make me feel bad about this game.

Same here, if anyone can infuse some sorely needed story into an MMO, Bioware can. And delayed games usually show a higher amount of polish, something that MMO makers usually think they will patch in later, but then just end up patching in new content because that's what people want. Better to get the infrastructure down from the start, because once it is released, good luck patch-polishing.

Also, I thought TOR wasn't announced to have any release date and I had assumed it would debut some time in 2012 or 2013.

So actually, all things considered, this is GOOD news for me.

 

[Danpascooch]

What's the matter? The old republic afraid to go toe to toe with WoW?

Wouldn't you be?

It's like trying to open up a new gas station chain. Good luck with that.

Seriously though, I think Bioware has a good chance of getting a bunch of customers that are sick of story-less MMO's, have you ever played Star Wars: Galaxies? There are literally like FIVE different kinds of quests, that are re-skinned hundreds and hundreds of times. It's the laziest thing I've ever seen.

 

[Valiance]

Remember: You can only have one "launch day."

And you better make it good.

 

[Eldarion]

What's the matter? The old republic afraid to go toe to toe with WoW?

Wouldn't you be?

It's like trying to open up a new gas station chain. Good luck with that.

Seriously though, I think Bioware has a good chance of getting a bunch of customers that are sick of story-less MMO's, have you ever played Star Wars: Galaxies? There are literally like FIVE different kinds of quests, that are re-skinned hundreds and hundreds of times. It's the laziest thing I've ever seen.

Not sure what you mean by "story less MMO's", world of warcraft has allot of lore and story but its the only one I have played much.

Also, yhea Galaxies was pretty boring after the first 5 quests.

 

[A Hot Hotpocket]

It's official now. Here is the thread on the official site: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2350365#post2350365

I'm a little mixed on the news. I was hoping for a 2010 release date just because I would have liked to get my hands on it. On the other hand, I'd rather had a polished and finished game to play when it does come out so I'm willing to wait.

Also, someone needs to educate those EA executives about keeping some of their confidential information confidential. I'm absolutely sure Bioware did not want to have their target release date out in the open yet. This kind of shows their hand to all the competition and it puts a big timeclock on the wall that the developers/fans will look at constantly.

 

[manythings]

I can wait for it for another year, what with the whole "unemployed student" and "computer not good enough to run it" setbacks.

Two other things:

On Topic: Seriously dark templar are you really going to talk fan boy? Fantasy MMO vs. Sci Fi MMO. Are they in the same region of gamers? I'm thinking no since I like Bioware and I can't think of a Blizzard game that I care about. I'm talkin about taste. TOR looks enjoyable like KotOR before it. I'm willing to bet on a lot of gamers viewing things in a similar light.

Off Topic: Could people just stop using any announcement of a delayed game to ***** about Half-Life 2: Episode 3? We get it, it's been a while and you're sick of waiting but the reason a game like Half-Life takes this long is they took a look and said "This isn't good enough". Last I checked Valve don't work by the EA Business model of pissing all over the consumer until they confuse the familiar piss storms with how things should be.