Star Wars: The Old Republic Launch Date Announced 125
BioWare announced today that their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, will launch on December 20 in North America, and December 22 in Europe. They've released a new trailer for the game, and reiterated that they'll be throttling logins early on to prevent server instability. Gamasutra recently spoke with SW:TOR project lead James Ohlen about finishing up the game and preparing it for launch. He said, "We're also focused on game balance for combat, for itemization, for the social systems. We've been running a lot of tests, we're getting a lot of feedback on the game. And when we get that feedback, we use it to make tweaks and changes. We're not making major changes now, we're just making changes that we can."
See you there? (Score:1)
Eh (Score:2)
Re:Eh (Score:4, Informative)
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$60 upfront (cheapest version) and then a monthly fee?
By the way, they also announced the amount of the monthly fees: http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110924 [swtor.com]
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"Do you have any reason to believe this is too expensive? Given the enormous development costs...and no guarantee of sales or number of subscriptions? What makes you think they'll even get back their investment?"
No kidding.
How much would it cost to go out with a gf to AppleBees for dinner and drinks? Jokes aside about slashdotters not having a gf ... I am guesing $85 right there.
That is for 2 meals, a few drinks, and a few hours of entertainment right? That is not even a fancy restaurant either.
You can play
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I'm just surprised with the pricing difference between MMOs (especially this one) and other games.
The monthly fees are supposed to pay for the development of new content, and the cost of running the servers, but:
- then, why do you have to pay for expansion packs, if you already paid for new content?
- I'm pretty sure their servers do not cost $15 per player to run.
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- I'm pretty sure their servers do not cost $15 per player to run.
Well, no, probably not. There are a lot of factors in the actual cost. $15 is just the industry standard.
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EVE Online, that old standard, provides the client for free (including free upgrades whenever they launch an expansion pack), and charge ever so slightly less than those monthly costs. And unlike this new Star Wars game, they have niche gameplay and lacked a ready-made franchise fan base.
I've nothing against MMO pricing in general, but Star Wars: TOR prices aren't exactly cheap.
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Perhaps true; it is a game with a lot of copy-paste content. But on the flip side, they are the proud owner of easily the gaming industry's biggest computer cluster (it has been speculated amply that it would likely hit the lower ranges of the Top500 list, if only they could meet the benchmarking requirements (which would involve multiple-day downtime)), and an immensely complex back-end software ecosystem in order to host what is really quite a unique set up (single-world persistence, no instancing). Which
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They make it as cheap as they can while still allowing for a decent profit.
I'd hate to say it, but that's not an accurate statement. A business' goal (excluding non-profits/charity) is to make as much profit as possible, not merely a "decent amount". They do this by testing what how many people are willing to pay how much and picking a point on the curve that suggests the highest possible profit margin.
They're not all just sitting around laughing about how badly they screwed their customers while drinking cognac and lighting Cuban cigars with twenties.
I get your point and I agree with you that too many people just bash on business, assuming they're all heartless billionaires. In reality, there are many passionate people who ru
What service? (Score:1)
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Other MMOs have gone free to play, only WoW seems to be able to keep people subscribing in the long run. Is this game really $15 a month better than Lord of the Rings Online?
And from what I understand, most of this game is single-player RPG content with lots of cut-scenes off the DVD, you're not actually getting much from the server anyway.
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Not to mention Diablo2, which still gets patches now and then, has a pretty active userbase on the official servers more than a decade after it's release.
And so far Diablo3 is being touted as an online play only game with no subscription. Although they are doing the microtransaction thing with the real money auction house.
That said I don't mind paying for subscription games now and then. Recently I've been playing Lord of Ultima, which I don't strictly subscribe to but I do pay for ministers on a monthly ba
Well though luck for you then (Score:5, Insightful)
And good luck with not paying road-tax for your newly bought car or having to keep filling it up with fuel.
As for your TV, what a rip-off, 8000 euro I payed for mine and now they expect me to pay a license fee AND the cable company AND for blu-ray movies.
You are perfectly correct in demanding for for about 40 euro a company keep a massive server farm running for years on end AND keep customer support on line every time you can't figure out a quest, all payed from the same 40 euro's.
What makes people so detached from reality that they think games like this can be run for free? Are they so in capable of doing any basic accounting that they truly can't see that a product with ongoing costs must have ongoing income?
Maybe to some its sound amazingly insightful that you are to cheap to pay 15 bucks for a piece of entertainment per month, to me it just says you are amazingly cheap. For most gamers it comes down to less then a buck an hour and quickly far far less. Only the internet is cheaper. Are you upset that when you payed for your modem the telephone company still wanted more money from you each month?
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I think people think you can run a game like this without a monthly fee because Guild Wars did it, and Guild Wars 2 is going to do it.
Guild Wars made plenty of money with that model too. The idea that you need montly fees in order to maintain servers is a useful one to the people who want to make more money on their MMO by charging you rent to play it. Please don't promote it. The reality is that maintaining servers doesn't cost that much in light of the margins on software.
Oh, and "tough". Sorry, it was bo
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Yeah, but Guild Wars isn't an MMORPG. They made a lot of decisions in their game design to keep server costs to a minimum. Those were some great decisions for what they wanted to accomplish, but it's a different type of game...
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I think people think you can run a game like this without a monthly fee because Guild Wars did it,
Guild Wars did NOT do it, because Guild Wars is a completely different kind of game. Most of it is instanced. Meaning, the game client can do most of the work. There's very little server CPU usage, and little bandwidth taken up. You can't compare the two.
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Guild Wars did NOT do it, because Guild Wars is a completely different kind of game. Most of it is instanced. Meaning, the game client can do most of the work. There's very little server CPU usage, and little bandwidth taken up. You can't compare the two.
Interview with Jeff Strain, founding member of ArenaNet
PC Games: "How do you plan to do this? Building such a complex world which is shared by all players without having monthly fees?"
Strain: (laughing) "A very good question! Interestingly many people believe that the completely instantiated world was the reason for Guild Wars 1 to not need monthly fees. This is completely wrong! The existence or lack of a persistent world is totally unrelated to the running expenses which are needed to maintain an online
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They don't have magical software that suddenly erases all of their monthly server expenses. They have almost no server expenses to begin with.
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How much infrastructure is required to sit through a cut-scene in TOR, or go through the single-player campaign against a couple of enemies with minimal AI? You could probably host 99% of the game on the player's computer. You're paying for nothing.
Did you play Guild Wars? (Score:5, Informative)
Guild wars does not have a persistent world, it has a few chat room areas that are instanced to hell and back and then when you enter the game world itself you are in your own little instance with just your own people.
(To those who do not understand this, an ordinary PC is perfectly capable of running a game world for a FPS. Even sharing that world with a few other people is not impossible, see all the self-hosted FPS games the PC was famous for). But start upping the number of people in the same game world and performance takes a nosedive. Years ago there was a FPS game that was supposed to support 256 players at once. Massive battles BUT also massive costs, because where previous FPS companies relied for online play on customer supplying the hardware and bandwidth, this company had to do it themselves. It is the reason there are virtually no massive FPS games out there, nobody can afford to run the server for free.
GW runs a large farm of cheap cheerfull servers, each time a player or small group leaves the instanced chat room area, they enter their own small area that can be handled by ordinary cheap commodity PC hardware. Think off not just the CPU but also memory. Memory has a sweet point for price, if you can outfit your servers with 4gb at 50 or 8gb at 150 then if your server can make do with 4gb you save a LOT of money. And the memory difference for a full size persistent game world is far greater. Try 32-64 GB. Now look at your PC specs. Can it handle that? No. It can't. You need to go to server grade hardware and pay the price.
Each GW instance is much cheaper to run then a persistent world for say WoW because the hardware itself is cheaper. GW can also re-use its hardware far more efficiently, each server does not care what instance it runs, if all of GW's player base wanted to play the same instance, all its servers would run the same instance for all the individual groups. Very efficient BUT not a proper persistent world as western style MMO's know it.
Their customer support is also crap and they have no such thing as moderation.
Comparing Guild Wars with say WoW is like comparing McD drive through with a full service restaurant.And before any GW fans bite my head off, I am not saying McD is bad because it is cheap, I am saying that because of the different style, its low price cannot be compared to a restaurant offering a different service level
MMO's like AoC that use instancing are always slammed for it because people want to play in a big world, not their own little corner. Guild Wars took it to extremes. You can't run into another player during a quest or even socialize and meet up in the game world. No 100 man gatherings in GW.
Your english is better then mine, your understanding of MMO's is a lot worse.
If you want a clear example of costs, I played Lotro the most. I have had a number of encounters with customer support, all good to be honest BUT they each took about 5-10 minutes to resolve. Not a lot of time you might say BUT together they amount to a bit over an hour at least. How much does it cost to have a person spend 1 hour on a customer? Saleries vary a lot BUT it will come awfully close to 40-50 euro's even at the absolute lowest rates.
So... how is the company supposed to fund the development of the game, pay for bug fixes and new content, server costs AND support when just my support needs alone cost more then the game cost? And that is even supposing that the full box price goes to the game company, which it doesn't.
Really, when you claim you can run WoW and now SWTOR of the small sum a company gets for a box sales for years on end... you got to know that you are missing something.
Play Guild Wars and play WoW, you will see they are VERY different games. Why then does GW charge a price when there are games I can play online for free by running them on my own machine! THIEFS!
Margins on software in gaming... please, grow up. The 40 euro in the shop includes money that goes to the retaile
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All of what you said makes sense, apart from I think you vastly overestimated what a support worker will get paid.. try more like 10 euros an hour :p
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It's not the salaries that kill support, it's the costs. Where I work (I do phone support) our typical call is three or four minutes. Divide up all the calls we take by all the costs of the building, power, computers, software, training, etc. and those calls run about $7 each for us to take.
A couple hundred bucks an hour per person on the phones is about average when you figure in all the costs.
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How often do you replace the computers, software, and do training? At 200 USd per hour you'd pay for the computer, software and power for the whole year in a few days.
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MMOs with a monthly fee still expect you to pay for expansions to get that content though. How many full games would you be able to buy off Steam with the subscriptions WoW players paid during ICC?
Once you're at max level, assuming three months per raid tier, you're paying $45 for a handful of bosses. Is that really equivalent in content to a normal game?
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8000 Euro? I know you folks pay significantly more for electronics, but really? What type of TV is this and when did you buy it?
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Except your examples are not relevant.
They could have chosen other solutions.
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This is more about whiney, cheap internet bitching than a serious business discussion. Just look at the games industry, it's like movies or writing - you invest years of blood and sweat and either you come out the other end virtually bankrupt (most common), or you rarely get a hit and actually get a decent profit. This doesn't mean the monster distributors don't gobble up much of it, but then without them, you're highly unlikely to be a hit. The Minecrafts are the exception to the rule.
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He said he didn't intend to buy a computer game which required both an upfront purchase and subscription; instead he said he'd choose an alternative that didn't. I don't know if that went straight over your head, or whether you felt the need to rant so produced a strawman to then attack for that purpose.
Also, on the subject of what sounds insightful etc regarding money. Needlessly pointing out cost when referring to an expensive television you claim to own will only
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Statistically most people end up paying a lot more on the microtransaction ones.
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Some people pay a lot more. A small fraction pay enormous amounts, subsidizing those of us who feel no need to pay hundreds or thousands a month to play a game.
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I paid for that stuff before simply as a thankyou for making the game free to play.. slightly perverse yes, but true.
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You pay monthly for all your utilities do you not? If not, what strange utility company do you have that gives you unlimited service for one lump payment?
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Sure I did but I didn't have a connection payment up front (though If you screw up enough to get things disconnected there would be I guess). So that's all monthly fees which doesn't qualify for the "I've already purchased" part in what you are replying to.
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Whereas I have sometimes but not most of the time. And I've moved 8 times in the last 7 years.
As a member of Squadron 1020 (first beta weekend) (Score:2)
I cannot wait for this bloody game to finally release....
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I agree. Not everyone likes dragons and swords and spells and faeries... fantasy is crap to some... space western and post apocqalypse are my fav themes. SWG was nice but I've learned to avoid MMORPG... it will be nice to watch others play, though.
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I understand what you're trying to say, but claiming "fantasy is crap" and then saying your can't wait for a Star Wars based MMO is a little bit of a ludicrous statement.
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Traditional fantasy is what I meant, and it of course is opinion. Traditional fantasy is LOTR type themes... dragons... elves... spells.
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TOR has all those things, although they may be reskinned as something else.
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You don't get me. In star wars a speederbike is your horse, a lightsaber or laser rifle is your sword, and some cool flamethbrower is your spells. Steroids are like enchantments....
I realize the concepts are the same, my point is about the theme... space westerns and post apocalyptic themes are what I prefer... I don't like traditional fantasy themes... boring.
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My point was the THEME, not the framework. Like I said, dragons, swords, spells... unappealing. Those are components of the THEME. The framework is fine by me. I said before, I like postapocalyptic and space western themes...
Meh. (Score:5, Interesting)
Would have rathered KOTR III.
I'm curious as to how big a game this will be. Is it fair to compare it with WOW or Star Trek Online?
But can we sue them? (Score:1)
Will this game include EA's new TOS provision that requires you to give up your right to engage in a class action lawsuit against them if they do something illegal?
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However, it does require an Origin account: http://www.swtor.com/info/faq#170974 [swtor.com]
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Would have rathered KOTR III.
The Lucas does not care, moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney.
Re:Meh. (Score:4, Insightful)
Guess that explains all the Jedi too. Would be hard to make an MMO where being a Jedi was rare.
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I was looking over the classes and they basically named one Tank.
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/classes/sith-warrior [swtor.com]
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I was thinking, was KOTOR the last great Star Wars game? There have been plenty games since but they all seem to range from poor to mediocre.
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Also, I can't be the only one who wished they could have had a teacher like Kreia in real life.
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It is KOTOR III. And IV. And V. And VI...
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Is it fair to compare it with WOW or Star Trek Online?
I didn't play STO but if WoW and Knights of the Old Republic had a baby, this would be it. From what I've seen, you've got combat animations like KOTOR where there's actual interaction between fighters, not just timed swing animations but blocks, parries, etc. (like KotOR). Mixed with Dragon Age / Mass Effect like voice acting with dialogue option paths, and I'm speculating that it will have game play similar to WoW, solo friendly, relatively easy/n00b friendly, upgrade loot heavy, questing centric, as w
Server stability (Score:2)
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Now that I think about, having people on vacation might actually be a good thing. People will have a chance to try it throughout the day and night that entire week. The load will actually be more distributed throughout the day and not just during prime time.
Actually no. (Score:2)
During the holidays, people got other obligations AND when they login it will be spread over the entire day not a massive spike after work hours.
There may or may not be problems but people often forget just how much time normal people, not slashdotters, spend during weekends and holidays on social stuff. I know plenty of people who have more time off during the week then the weekend as it is all used to visit families or attend parties. Thank god I am a nerd so I get the entire weekend to myself... all alon
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With any new release, as soon as the flag is lifted, all the servers will quickly crash because all players will be racing to the login server. It's happened for every major MMO release. WoW was nearly unplayable for 2-4 weeks. Oh, I remember all the free game time they gave us. =)
The holidays will help and hurt Bioware. It will help, as you pointed out, by allowing people to login more sparsely than during "primetime" like hours. It will hurt because it's almost assured that the servers will be down,
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Not a Coincidence (Score:3)
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More likely they're trying to avoid Skyrim. While not an MMO, it will still draw many of the same type of gamers, and many other types, into it's seemingly endless gameplay.
I've never finished the main story of an Elder Scrolls game, and I've played everyone since the Original (Including Redguard and Battlespire!)
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I still play Oblivion.
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Given WoW 4.3 is due on PTR this week according to blue posts, I wouldn't be surprised if it will hit the production servers early Dec.
Even if it hits earlier, given the strong likelyhood that Bliz are going to announce the xpac @ Blizcon (21 Oct), they will probably just release a big chunk of expansion news the same week. Say a new race or profession, with a bucket of screen shots.
Maybe even some beta news, but I think it would be a bit early of the public beta. They probably won't want the public beta to
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ICC was longer than 12 months :(
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It's like WoW... in SPAAAAAAAACE. (Score:3)
Honestly when I read about this game it sounds like the developers have exactly the same mindset that Blizzard does, so apart from new scenery and stuff, SWTOR hardly sounds revolutionary in any way.
Quests, leveling, getting to max-level, raiding, limits on end-game content at launch, devs didn't want to allow talent respecs so that "player decisions will mean something" then later change their mind, attempts to encourage/force people to group up in order to do leveling content "because it's a social game and we think people should be social", battlegrounds, $15/month, etc.
G.
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There is Blizzard's Titan MMO. I think that is supposed to be scifi.
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The rest of your statements are also wrong. Dune II is the first RTS game to feature a tech tree in 1992, two years before Warcraft. Dune II's tech tree was copied by Blizzard for Warcraft and used in Diablo 2 when Blizzard began looking
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So since EVE Online is basically a spreadsheet with built-in chat, the most I'd expect from CCP is an MMO starring Clippy.
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As far as game studios goes they seem to be the only ones willing to take risks and try to innovate
Success tempers risk taking.
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Greed tempers risk taking
FTFY. If anything, success enables risk taking by giving you some funds to work with. Not everyone will take risks just because they have money, but it will make them feel more comfortable about doing so.
Re:It's like WoW... in SPAAAAAAAACE. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Who cares? The same thing could be said of WoW and Everquest. Heck, If we travel back in time, there's probably some holier-than-thou nerd complaining that UO is just a MUD with graphics . The fact that SWTOR follows many of the coventions of the MMORPG genre is hardly an argument for (or against) whether it will be a bad game.
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The NDA keeps me from saying anything interesting, but you're wrong on just about all accounts. TOR has more in common with KOTOR than WoW, and has done some pretty interesting things so far.
I know "it's a secret" isn't all that convincing, but give 'em a chance to release it before judging too harshly.
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Judging from some of the videos, combat consists of standing a couple of feet in front of a guy and repeatedly shooting him in the face until he's dead.
Maybe that's a bit lame in sword/sorcery games too, but for some reason it seems to really stick out more in this case (and I guess all gun based MMOs).
I'd rather play T'Rain
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In other news... (Score:2)
Word of Warcraft Patch 4.3, "The Dragon Soul" release date to be announced.
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Soon
Seriously though, Bliz never announce patch dates. The best we would get is being told that the servers are going down tonight to apply the patch.
Given the 20 Dec is a Tuesday, the 13th or 20th wouldn't be a surprise.
In the words of Darth Vader... (Score:1)
NOOOOOOO!
Kidding, quite excited if you can really measure up to KotoR.
Steam or portable? (Score:2)
No? Not trying that then.
Wait till January (Score:2)
BT NG SN S 1 VIT NAM (Score:1)