Week in Review: No release date for you

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. Miss a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week? You've come to the right post.

Release date please. Release date please. Release date please. You can keep asking for Star Wars: The Old Republic's release date, but it won't make a difference. You won't get it until Electronic Arts is ready. And even when you get it, what will you do with it? Complain that it's too soon? Too far away? Your wait's going to be the same regardless. So during that wait, you're just going to have to be content with walkthroughs of iconic planets like Tatooine and Alderaan, previews of raids, teaser trailers of Smugglers in very fine hats, and hands-on impressions of new class specs. I know. Life's rough.

Join me past the break for a look at this week's other top MMO stories, unsurprisingly dominated by E3 goodness!

DUST 514 is a PS3 exclusive, spring 2012; Integration with EVE Online
CCP revealed critical DUST and EVE information at E3.
EverQuest II's Dave Georgeson in 3-D
EQII highlighted new mounts, a new class, and plans for 3-D.
GamersFirst talks APB Reloaded's new features and player politics
We got the scoop on the revitalized APB at E3.
Suspected Sony hackers arrested in Spain
The Spanish government claimed to have caught several PSN hackers.
New Dark Millennium Online teaser sighted in the wild
THQ's new Warhammer 40K MMO resurfaced for E3.
A ride through LotRO's Rise of Isengard
We checked out Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming expansion content.
Hands on with RIFT's 1.3 update
Our sneak peek at RIFT's incoming Waves of Madness patch.
Guild Wars 2's Eric Flannum on promises, pets and purpose
ArenaNet delivered two meaty GW2 interviews.
Sony Online Entertainment dropping the price for Station Access
SOE announced it would lower the cost of StationPasses to $20.
First look at Wizardry Online
We chatted with Headlock Games at E3 about permadeath and more.
Conquering the world with World of Tanks, New World of Warplanes MMO
Viktor Kislyi deemed WoT a "boy's game" and announced a sky-based sequel.
Trion Worlds talks Defiance
We dug into Trion's upcoming sci-fi TV crossover MMO.
The Soapbox: The absurdity of the endgame
Jef poked fun at deficiencies in the modern MMO endgame.
Hands-on with DCUO's Game Update 4
We interviewed DCUO's Mark Anderson about MegaServers and more.
En Masse interview delves into TERA's political system
TERA's Vanarch and Exarch systems were detailed at E3.
GamersFirst talks Fallen Earth and F2P
GamersFirst discussed its new partnership with Fallen Earth and Icarus Studios.

And from our sister site, WoW Insider...

EA CEO won't share SWTOR release date because of "principal competitor"
That principal competitor being, of course, World of Warcraft.
WoW Rookie: How to balance life vs. WoW
Michael offered advice on balancing MMOs with busy real lives.

Reader Comments (22)

It was kind of lame that EA is deciding to withhold the release date for SWTOR, but I'm thinking that they'll either announce a September release at Comic-Con, or a November/December release to take the steam out of any BlizzCon announcements.

Gotta agree with the authors comments, much as we would like to know when, it will happen when they are ready and not before. Better for them to not have the pressure of a public deadline and get things ready than to screw it up by trying to meet a deadline. I just hope it remains a 2011 release, that is all i want.

@Bezza During G4's live E3 coverage, during the SWTOR hands on segment, the dev being interviewed confirmed that 2011 is still the release window.

Based on this roadmap, they expect a Sep/Oct/Early Nov release:

http://torwars.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/EA_Expected_Launch_Roadmap.png

Smart on EA's behalf waiting it out. You know once a release date comes for SWTOR that Blizzard will make some shocking news that tries to take away from the thunder of SWTOR.

@Alex Oglitchkin Agreed, I personally believe it Blizzard will announce some big D3 news around SWTOR.

Hey, I'll be happy if the game launches around October, as I predict a Diablo 3 launch around mid-December.

This two month window would also make my wife hate me less.

@KvanCetre

Blizzard said that Diablo 3 wasn't this year.

@bobfish

Huh, haven't seen that announcement.
I wonder if that's Blizzardspeak for January, though.

@KvanCetre

I believe it was in one of those Activision investor calls they seem to have all the time.

Expecting it to turn up early Spring next year tbh, whenever it does come though, it will be worth the wait.

@bobfish Which is just...shocking really. I remember in one of those Developer Interviews with a D3 producer, they were saying the game is pretty much done, polish is just being applied now, and that was back when the first full gameplay Vid came out (With the boss that comes through the wall), that was at least 6 months ago...even before the Demon Hunter was revealed, if I remember correctly.

Sure with they'd stop teasing us so much with all the wonderful news, teaser trailers and lore dumps.... but I can say the same thing about TSW.
But I'll be honest... the sadist in me is enjoying it.

I keep seeing that some of the PSN hackers got caught, but I've read elsewhere that these arrests had nothing to do with the actual PSN network but a seperate division of a Sony website.

I also agree with the authors comments, except for the people complaining about it releasing too soon. We don't usually complain about that until after the release.

@Deone Never, ever, underestimate fandom's ability to find something to complain about. Especially when it comes to releasing an MMO early. That seems to be the most common complaint after an MMO is released or a new content patch goes live: "They released it before it was ready". Left to the internet, Ultima Online would still be in open beta.

I can't wait for Guild Wars 2. Other than Blade&Soul (which is never coming out) its the only other MMO Ive ever truly been interested in. So I'm pretty excited. I just hope i can run it well enough.

I can see why they're reluctant to give a release date, if they gave one and then had to push back, people would be in a bigger uproar about it.

I don't understand the need to know an exact date right now though, if they announced it was coming out October 16th, everyone would have to still wait till October 16 for it. But unless someone is planning their vacation around the release, what's so important about the exact date or knowing it'll be out by December at the latest?

@Faith

I think I'll be doing just that, have some friends talking about planning vacation around launch week, drinking rum, staying up late and cursing the server queues.

They don't need to announce any time soon but knowing the launch date by October would be handy.

After E3, a long time forwards in a galaxy a tad distant, SW:TOR is finally released where WoW isn't played.

@dudes

If people are still playing Anarchy Online, I don't see a point where WoW suddenly dies :)

Agreed with many about not announcing a date.

Doesn't serve a purpose and I can't imagine someone's life solely revolving around WHEN is just announced to come out. As the author said, they aren't going to play it any faster because of that.

Better to get it right or as reasonably close to 'right' as possible lest you suffer the barrage of "diz sux" over every forum by trolls who hate SWTOR anyways.

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Week in Review: No release date for you

Reader Comments (22)

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 8:15PM JohnFordColey said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 8:22PM Bezza said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 12:21PM BIGGIN said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 8:40PM Sharuk said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 9:15PM Alex Oglitchkin said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 9:25PM Sharuk said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 9:29PM KvanCetre said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 7:17AM bobfish said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 7:57AM KvanCetre said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 8:13AM bobfish said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 1:06PM Faction 3 said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 10:38PM nathanb said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 11:09PM Deone said

Posted: Jun 12th 2011 11:22PM Furdinand said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 12:10AM NukeAssault said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 6:14AM Faith said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 6:39AM Boojum said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 7:06AM dudes said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 8:00AM KvanCetre said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 9:04AM real65rcncom said

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