Posts Tagged ‘release’

SWTOR Off to Flying Start

So only ten days after release, the initial numbers are in for the current standing of the game.

 

And so far, the result is GREAT!

With more than a Million accounts being used since the early opening of the game, SWTOR has instantly rocketed to second place in the MMO world, behind the ever present World of Warcraft.

 

New sales records have been set right around the globe, after the most rapid subscriber increase the Industry has ever seen taking place just after Christmas.
This has been helped by the overwhelmingly positive ratings the game has received, with few if any giving any less than 9/10. With reviewers so quick to find the faults of just about any hyped product in the online market, after magnificent let-downs such as Age of Conan, SWTOR has held up amazingly well under fire.

 

However, some of these have raised suspicions, such as the game being awarded the 2010 Game Critics award for best PC game. Funny, seeing as not even testing had begun until 2011.

 

We are currently seeing the first large batch of players reach max level, which will put the second major test to the Developers, that being is there enough content to sustain a continued interest like we see in other Major MMORPGs. This has often been the failing point of other games, where players reach the maximum development of their character they realise there is nothing left to do. Usually this is countered by PvP Systems, which are thankfully present, but other end-game features such as trading and exploring found in the previous Star Wars game Galaxies are no where in sight.

 

In fact, without these added time-sinks, and companion characters doing simple tasks that occupy players in other games, we may find the gaming elite becoming positively bored in short order.

Choose Your Side, or Rather Class

The puzzlingly named Choose Your Side features have continued today, as fans count down the days until release, with a match up between Imperial Agent and Jedi Consular taking place.

Always keen to make their employees seem like real people to the public (rather than the un-sleeping computer maniacs we know they really are) some light banter was put up on The Old Republic’s website detailing the hot topic of debate in the Bioware office, which class had the upper hand in a Consular vs Agent battle.

Now, seeing as many of these fights have happened already during testing the developers are somewhat playing coy with the population, because as released seven weeks ago, we already have the number for one on one combat that has taken place.

Originally the article was to be found here , but due to the need for more content to go into the weekly news it has been removed, and hypothetical ‘class Matchups’ have been added instead.

But thankfully as we have the official site’s news archived here at SWTOR Republic we can look up the numbers to see which has the upper hand.

The real numbers show a slightly different side of the story as the “they are balanced” message sent in the Choose Your Side feature. For all one on one fights that have taken place so far the current winner is the Imperial Agent, but a 69% success landslide.

Perhaps this should not be surprising. A solo class matched up against a group play style class is always bound to present some imbalances, however generally we would have expected things to have been slightly better than we have seen.

As the release grows nearer, now only 13 days away, many are racing to pre-order the game to secure their cheaper, and fully featured copies. If market research done so far is anything to go on, the game may be scarce in standard retailers for quite some time.

Strong Pre-Order numbers for SWTOR

In an annual report released yesterday by Bioware, among the pages of budgeting and productivity reports, discerning fans of Star Wars The Old Republic saw that the game, still months from release has already broken 36 thousand subscribers.

In a somewhat surprising move it seems the developers of the game have neglected to mention this on their website, even though it seems like a very impressive statistic. However, this may be just a temporary business decision, as they may wait until the number reaches another substantial milestone, such as 50 thousand.

With the date for release officially ‘set in stone’ for the 20th of December, it is somewhat surprising that so many players would be interested in securing the game so far ahead of time. Previous games, even ones as large as World of Warcraft, did not have nearly this many subscribers such a distance before they would actually enter the game.

It is probably no coincidence that the release date has been scheduled for the 20th, four days after the planned shut down of the previous Star Wars MMORPG, Star Wars Galaxies. Perhaps Lucasarts’ juggling of these dates is why it took so long to have a confirmed release for SWTOR, as they want to transfer as many players as possible straight from one to the other.

Since the announcement of SWTOR there has been almost continual speculation as to how the two games will coexist, which has thankfully been put to rest with the conclusion of one chapter in the Star Wars game-saga, and the opening of another. Lets just hope the strong subscriber numbers will reflect the strength of Star Wars The Old Republic when it is released, or we may find a lot of players wishing to move back to their previous game, which will no longer be there.

Pre-Order SWTOR

Now that SWTOR has finally been released for pre-order, fans of The Old Republic are flocking to online stores and supermarkets alike to grab their own special copy, so that they are ensured play time on the very first day it is released. The moral is, Pre Order SWTOR Now!

As one of the most anticipated games of 2011, SWTOR will fly off the shelves, so many fans assume (perhaps correctly) that if they do not get in early, they may find themselves at the end of a long queue for the game when it finally enters its second run of production.

To accompany this announcement, the developers at Bioware released a brand new promotional video ‘Join the Fight’ at the recent Comic-con. This short cinematic takes fans through a quick run down of the professions, and reveals some previously unseen abilities which are sure to be a hit with the players of each profession. Also included in the video is a brief snippet of The Old republic’s soundtrack, which so far seems to be truly phenomenal. As of yet only videos have been released, but they feature expertly crafted mashups of well known Star Wars refrains, as well as original pieces composed for The Old Republic.

Now that SWTOR is ready to be ordered, we should see the interest in the game rise, and players become even more vocal, because now that they’ve paid for the game they will very much want to receive what they hoped they paid for.

Tough Competition

Perhaps looking back the developers of Bioware might have wished for a slightly more speedy development process, as they have unwittingly scheduled the game for release during one of the most anticipated few months of the past five years. Coming up will be a huge number of releases, including the next Call of Duty, Battlefield and Assassins Creed. Any of these games alone would take a chunk out of the possible number of players for SWTOR, and all together they may significantly reduce beginning subscriber numbers, which will put the game at a great Financial disadvantage.

One relief will be that these games, like their many predecessors, aught to turn into passing crazes, and within six months to a year their players will be looking for something new, and that might just be Star Wars The Old Republic.

One thing slightly more involved about this will be the demographics playing the various games. Unsurprisingly most of the roleplayers *cough*carebears*cough* will not turn to these other games, so at least for the first few months SWTOR may see far more than its fair share of tea parties, in game weddings and general over-simplification of perfectly functioning aspects of the game.

One thing is for sure, Bioware is sure to know of these expected difficulties, which may see them lash out on advertising far in excess of what may have been originally expected. Even thought this may only attract the minimum number to begin with, over time these investments should yield more players, which may overall make for a stronger game.

Fan Friday Once Again

Fan Fridays are always popular within the SWTOR community, and this week’s was no exception.

As the game’s release date draws ever closer more and more artistically inclined fans are coming into the community, which has seen a huge amount of original (and exceptionally good) artwork flood the forums.

Out of the kindness of their hearts the Bioware blog writers acknowledge many of the most outstanding works in their weekly posts, which thankfully helps to encourage similar artists to show off their talents.

Also featured are some of the games most popular blogs, which even though they attract visitors away from the main site, help to increase general interest in the game none the less.

This weeks article featured one of our spin off blogs, SWTOR Life, which was started by the SWTOR Republic team as an outlet for more trivial news and speculation we did not feel appropriate for this main site. In this role it has so far done a great job, and on the occasional week it might even draw similar numbers to this, our main site!

As release looms more blogs will come out, many of which will attempt to copy the old and more mature websites already in place. As many in the blogger-sphere know this is almost inevitable in any new area, so we shall patiently await whatever ideas are thrown our way.

For next weeks friday feature, a leaked internal E-mail from Bioware revealed a new article the likes of which, I quote, ‘ Players have never seen’. This seems like something great to look forward to, but also brings a foreboding message, as this could easily be a turn for the worse, rather than good.

Lets just hope that with new information will come the same quality seen to date, and that the avid fans will continue with current efforts to produce an ever growing wealth of concept art!

Fan Art Developments

Recently on last week’s fan Friday we saw some further glimpses of the vibrant SWTOR community’s creations. This included works such as the very menacing General Grevious look-a-like pictured below, which shows tremendous creativity and artistic skill.

Also released was information on other fan blogs, such as the femi-nazi Corellia Run Radio. These blogs seem to invest copious amounts of time into their SWTOR hobbies, which begs the question whether their supposedly original and accurate content is really respectable at all.

Also released was further information on the Fan Site kit which allows good sheep-like fan sites to have easy access to SWTOR’s content, for the small price of their own journalistic integrity. Many have taken up this gift from the developers, and it is them and only them that we see featured on the official web site, as acknowledging a non-compliant fan site is far from the top the bioware developers’ list of things to do.

Also with the fan site kit we saw the release of a wide variety of forum avaters and icons. These Further allow players to customise their free forum accounts to show a bit about themselves, and how they plan to play the game upon its release.

With the release date looming more and more fan sites are coming into being, some of which seem to offer valuable content, and others which give readers nothing at all other than regurgitated content from the official SWTOR website. We hope that the increasing trend of the later will continue, which should put the game’s community in good stead pending its release.

PAX Highlights

Today the developers of SWTOR released a video detailing some of the exciting events that happened at this year’s PAX summit.

All in all, it looks like a great time was had by all.

There were costumed jesters dressed as troopers, jedi and Sith lords patroling the show, as well as developers and higher-ups at Bioware there to talk with their fans. Many players queued for more than five hours to get in, but their perseverance was worth it in the end when they found banks of computers where they could play SWTOR for the very first time.

This proved interesting and illuminating for new players and old time fans alike. The overwhelming responses were positive, and many found hours go by before they were asked by security guards dressed as scout troopers to move along.

The developers said recently on the official site that they were very pleased with the fan dedication, although perhaps a little freaked out by some. More than one couple was at the convention on their honeymoon.

As the release date grows closer, more and more public awareness events like this will be run, and it will give players from all over the world chances to experience this much awaited game still months from release. Hopefully Bioware will be a bit more worldly-conscious than other gaming companies, and perhaps hold summits outside of the United States, as wherever they go there are sure to be big turn outs.

This time next year Star Wars The Old Republic will be in full swing and perhaps the PAX summit will bring news of exciting new expansions, but for now all of the games supporters are waiting with baited breath for the ever approaching release date.

Some highlights for the summit can be found in this video.

SWTOR finally on the Shelves!

After many years of waiting. More than two in fact. Cries of jubilation have gone around the community of Star Wars The Old Republic, as the much awaited game has finally gone on sale in stores across America and Europe, as well as on major internet retailers Amazon and Ebay.

For those who can’t bear to read further, here is a link to the Amazon page:

Buy Star Wars: The Old Republic

Many had speculated about the price of the game. EA themselves said half a million subscribers would be substantially profitable, but now that speculation is all over, and the real prices are available for all to contemplate.
The game is currently retailing at $80USD, which includes a free month of play with every copy. During activation credit card details must be entered, however no charge will be applied until the middle of the second month of play time. After that, ever month is US$18.99, which is a very competitive price for such a vast game in the MMORPG industry.

There have certainly been mixed expectations for Star Wars The Old Republic, but with its release finally a lot of these can be put to rest. We will not know the exact sales numbers for this early period until June, however market analysts predict that It will set the new record for most sales in opening week, a record held currently by the MMO giant World of Warcraft.

For the next three days Bioware will be selling a limited collectors edition of the game for the slightly increased price of US$100. This gets shoppers a leather bound case, along with a map of the galaxy and a card signed by one of the game’s developers. Apparently only five thousand of these are being produced, we went ahead and ordered three.

As players finally venture out into the universe of SWTOR, they are experiencing for the first time what they have waited so long to see. Lets hope it holds up to everyone’s expectations!

Click here to go to the Amazon page and Buy Star Wars: The Old Republic

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.