Jeff Hickman hops over to Star Wars: The Old Republic

It might be a case of in-house talent poaching or just a good opportunity for all parties involved, but BioWare has hired Jeff Hickman away from Mythic to be Star Wars: The Old Republic's new Executive Producer of Live Services.

The hire was announced at the recent BioWare's Fan Site Summit, according to Ask a Jedi. Hickman was previously the Studio Executive Producer for all of Mythic's MMOs. He'll step into the role left open by Gordon Walton, who left BioWare earlier this year.

With both BioWare and Mythic under the same parent company -- Electronic Arts -- it stands to reason that the two studios have a strong network and relationships that could lead to such transfers of personnel. We'll look forward to seeing what Jeff Hickman will bring to TOR as it progresses toward launch!

Reader Comments (57)

I'm not comfortable with this. I don't know if the death of WAR was his fault but he was in charge...so even if it wasn't it was. I'd rather he stay away from SWTOR.

Have to agree with the masses on this one. I just hope to god this guy isn't in charge of any of the pvp aspects of the game. If I'm not mistaken this is the jackass that caused order classes to be 2x as powerful as chaos ones. And then threatened that any employees that think order is overpowered had to got through him first. Effectively taking the first step is destroying the game that was once Warhammer Online.

This guy shouldn't be working anything above McDonald's burger flipper. (My sincere apologies for anyone reading this that would have to put up with him in that position either.)

But he is awesome in telling ppl that the game will be awesome. And that is an awesome talent! ;)

It looks like the community isn't taking it well at all, my good friend is a manager over at Gamestation in Bridgewater she said since this news broke she has heard nothing but "no sale" from folks who was eagerly awaiting the game...I don't know how it is back in the states but in the U.K. folks are just crushed.

First EA now this turd, whats next hire Smedbucks ?
Just seems like more nails in the coffin before it has even been born.

I dont follow ToR news on purpouse but its bad enough they have PvP and does this mean they will have a screw you shop ?

Anyone associated with Warhammer: Age of Reckoning should be forbidden by law from EVER getting another job in the gaming industry.

@shiningfury

So a decent chunk of the existing ToR staff? As soon as BioWare/Mythic were rolled into the same department many people from Mythic went to help the ToR team since they had MMO experience.

@shiningfury -"Anyone associated with Warhammer: Age of Reckoning should be forbidden by law from EVER getting another job in the gaming industry."

Wow, I hope you never are part of anything that fails. With that attitude you would probably hang your self.

Warhammer may have failed but is far from the worst thing to happen in MMO history. Allot of people worked very hard on WAR, in the end though key decisions were made without thinking things through. Fans may relent and complain about the end product but more so then any other beta, Mythic was very responsive. Allot of the changes folks described as horrible were made because the majority of testers requested them. They polled and listened and changed the game to meet the whims of the testers. The only mistake they really made was spending to much time trying to make a game everyone wanted to play versus focusing the game on one core audience.

Oh no... I hope this will not be a repeat of Warhammer Online. I will have to keep an eye on this, and to one of the posters on here... yes I agree /popcorn. :(

3 pages later...

I got a bad feeling this is not going to be well recieved.

Ewww, just the mention of WAR makes me feel icky.

Sheesh this is almost funny... more over the top doomsday predictions without any founding.

@Nhoj1983

Except Jeff Hickman has a reputation that precedes him, and not in a positive light.

I feel like SWTOR just got kicked in the naughty end, and the investors have are begun to write off their losses.

Good news! This means that finally WAR is rid of the guy!
I feel sorry for the SWOTOR fans, but personally I have no interest in the game so it's only good news to me. ^^

OH LOOK, PAUL BARNETT IS COMING AS WELL

Yeah, the first year of Warhammer was crap. Coming from DAoC, I was entirely disappointed just like everyone else. Guess what though, WAR is still the best modern PvP MMO out there, and I am currently playing it over Rift.

Dammit, why do people insist on messing up a good thing?

First EA and now this clown...riotous

Heck, save me some of that popcorn please!!

Jeff Hickman hops over to Star Wars: The Old Republic

Reader Comments (57)

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:15PM Yog said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:37PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:41PM Mendoras said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:59PM Dunraven said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 3:01PM winterborn said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 3:01PM shiningfury said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 4:01PM Epiny said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 5:50PM Phone Guy said

Posted: May 3rd 2011 11:55AM WyattEarp89 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 5:33PM Utakata said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 5:48PM Degu said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 11:23PM Nhoj1983 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 11:53PM Ewog said

Posted: Apr 29th 2011 7:59AM Xaviez said

Posted: Apr 30th 2011 3:43AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 3rd 2011 2:27PM Boulderbolg said

Posted: May 4th 2011 4:41PM (Unverified) said

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