The community team at BioWare told us that we would know when the train was coming, but it came crashing through our house when half of us were still sleeping. As we reported earlier, Star Wars: The Old Republic set its launch day for December 20th for North America and December 22nd for Europe. All the fans exhaled in relief, then promptly started asking more questions.
First off, the Australian and New Zealand launch dates have not been set, and BioWare cannot commit to a launch day yet for that region. However, back in August, Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid posted on the official forums that "There are no plans to 'region lock' or 'IP block' players from the game. You may experience some latency issues if you're not playing in a launch territory." This still holds true today.
To prevent signup issues on launch day, log-ins will be throttled. However, pre-order customers will still gain early access to the game. Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman reported on the official forum: "The beginning of Early Game Access will depend on a number of factors, including results from our Game Testing Program and Pre-Orders, but there will be multiple days of access."
Lastly, in case you missed it earlier, BioWare did announce the subscription costs. It comes as no surprise to most MMO gamers that the first month is free with the purchase of the game. After that it's $14.99 per month (£8.99 or €12.99), $41.97 for 3 months (£25.17 or €35.97), or $77.94 for six months (£46.14 or €65.94). There have been no lifetime subscription announcements as of yet, but we will let you know if we hear anything.
Reader Comments (101)
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 11:03AM crazypoker said
They are killing me! Why xmas?!
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 3:09PM Deadalon said
@crazypoker
PPL in the "second class" EU counties have no guaranty that there wont be IP block. With gated control to the server we can be 100% sure that there will be a block for those players. Thats simply not acceptable.
I got the feeling we are in for the biggest failure of a MMO game ever created considering the IP and the developmentcost. The secresy is never good for a game and it seems like Bioware have alot of things to hide atm.
Reply
PPL in the "second class" EU counties have no guaranty that there wont be IP block. With gated control to the server we can be 100% sure that there will be a block for those players. Thats simply not acceptable.
I got the feeling we are in for the biggest failure of a MMO game ever created considering the IP and the developmentcost. The secresy is never good for a game and it seems like Bioware have alot of things to hide atm.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 3:19PM crazypoker said
@Deadalon
Slow down mate they promise you to not block it. And I am sure they will not. Relax.
Reply
Slow down mate they promise you to not block it. And I am sure they will not. Relax.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 6:31PM Fishyfishfish1 said
@Mikx December 25th is Christmas it is a holiday created to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in this world. not liking Christianity doesn't change facts.
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Posted: Sep 25th 2011 10:37AM Thrasher said
@Fishyfishfish1 LOL!! Christmas (the celebration not the word) was around way before christ was born, it comes from pagan holidays the church wanted nothing to do with and most "real" christians dont celebrate it as anything more then a time for festivities to celebrate life, family and friends.
http://www.pathlights.com/theselastdays/tracts/tract_22m.htm
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm
Reply
http://www.pathlights.com/theselastdays/tracts/tract_22m.htm
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 6:21PM SpikeCS said
@crazypoker In a way, when you think about it, its brilliant. People will still buy the box but by nature of being less than a week from Christmas, not everyone who gets the game will be able to spend an insane amount of time on it...lessening the initial server crush.
Add to that people who pre-ordered having a least a few days head start, you really have three "tiers" of people starting at different dates. This will probably, to a degree, help starting zone/server performance.
(just speculation)
Reply
Add to that people who pre-ordered having a least a few days head start, you really have three "tiers" of people starting at different dates. This will probably, to a degree, help starting zone/server performance.
(just speculation)
Posted: Sep 29th 2011 11:34PM Fishyfishfish1 said
@Thrasher
rofl way to link a christian to a Jewish website that says jesus is the devil what a fool you are your 1 sided views are well seen, troll
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rofl way to link a christian to a Jewish website that says jesus is the devil what a fool you are your 1 sided views are well seen, troll
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 11:13AM Streamweaver said
I'm just glad I don't have to suffer yet another release date speculation thread.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 11:22AM RavenCries said
@Streamweaver
Yup, now you can enjoy all the threads complaining about the release date instead :)
Reply
Yup, now you can enjoy all the threads complaining about the release date instead :)
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 11:33AM Yellowdancer said
@Streamweaver
Its not over yet...how many MMO's have hit their first announced release date? I can only remember Rift. But they didn't announce till they were further along than TOR in beta, I think.
Reply
Its not over yet...how many MMO's have hit their first announced release date? I can only remember Rift. But they didn't announce till they were further along than TOR in beta, I think.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 12:10PM Mystal said
@Yellowdancer Name a single MMO that hasn't launched (or at least attempted to launch) on an actually announced launch date and I'll show you a failed MMO.
By the way, the game is finished right now. All they're doing is giving themselves the maximum amount of time to squash bugs and get the servers stable without technically missing their launch window of Holiday 2011.
Reply
By the way, the game is finished right now. All they're doing is giving themselves the maximum amount of time to squash bugs and get the servers stable without technically missing their launch window of Holiday 2011.











