Testing Numbers for The Old Republic
Recently, figures released to online news networks revealed just how popular SWTOR is, still many months from release.
It became possible for forum members to sign up for testing in late 2009 by giving some information about themselves and their computer specs. At the time, the rush to perform computer scans on the official TOR website crashed their servers, which saw many trying for hours to get into the required application.
The haste of the masses was rather unwarranted, as more than a year later testing is still not open to the public. Currently it is only friends and family of EA and Bioware employees playing the game, however, plans are to open testing to general applicants over the next month or two.
Since it became possible to register, there have been more than one and a half million people say they are interested in testing Star Wars The Old Republic. These numbers are unparalleled in the gaming industry, and are far greater than SWTOR will ever be able to accommodate pre release. Just to put it into perspective, normal MMO beta testing programs generally involve something in the range of 2-10 thousand players.
Originally executives at EA had said the game would be substantially profitable with only 500,000 subscribers, so it looks like they are well on the track to achieve this and then some. The MMORPG market in north America alone is accounts for approximately 12 million players, with untold numbers more in Europe and Asia. This makes 2 million, or even closer to Warcraft’s 6 million subscribers a very real possibility for The Old Republic and we wish the huge team who has been working on the game so far the best of luck in achieving this, as they truly deserve it.

Many players await the chance to test their lightsaber prowess online.
Categories: Gameplay, Misc Tags: Beta Testing, bioware, EA, release, Star Wars The Old Republic, subscribers, SWTOR, test, testing