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 7:54PM (Unverified) said
I came here to read Ren54 comments on the release date and I have been satisfied.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 10:02PM Verus said
@Anticrawl
You do get one free month and if you pay for six months it will be 12.99. As for the cost being high it is the same blizzard has for the nearly decade old world of warcraft and millions of players seems to be fine with that.
You do get one free month and if you pay for six months it will be 12.99. As for the cost being high it is the same blizzard has for the nearly decade old world of warcraft and millions of players seems to be fine with that.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 10:06PM Anticrawl said
@Verus
Still too rich for my blood. I paid the 12.99 price for Ultima Online during the largest economic surplus ever and that was only because you could literally do everything and anything. This game is basically globalized co-op with on-the-rails space missions.
My eyes are on Guild Wars 2 now.
Still too rich for my blood. I paid the 12.99 price for Ultima Online during the largest economic surplus ever and that was only because you could literally do everything and anything. This game is basically globalized co-op with on-the-rails space missions.
My eyes are on Guild Wars 2 now.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 10:34PM Anticrawl said
For such a niche type MMO they sure are going for the highest risk model. Should be focusing on cost-leadership in this over-saturated MMO market.
Posted: Sep 24th 2011 11:20PM Graill440 said
....hmmm, i felt something, like hundreds of thousands of people just cried out and went "wtf xmas?"
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 2:42AM Amusednow said
@Anticrawl so go play your free cheapassed game then and don't whine, suppose you whine about magazine subscription prices also, or cable tv, or isp subs right?
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 3:36AM Anticrawl said
@Amusednow
I make a living in the game industry, don't insult me child.
I make a living in the game industry, don't insult me child.
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 9:23AM (Unverified) said
@Anticrawl
Just like I have known plenty of people who 'work on wall street' that I wouldn't trust to manage my dog's money? In short-- forgive us for not bowing down to your 'credentials.'
Reply
Just like I have known plenty of people who 'work on wall street' that I wouldn't trust to manage my dog's money? In short-- forgive us for not bowing down to your 'credentials.'
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 3:21PM Bladerunner83 said
@Anticrawl
Yeah sweeping floors and cleaning toilets, right? Your pathetic, "oh I work for the gaming industry, bow down to me." You sound like a child trying to push people around with the "who's got bigger balls" argument. Go play with yourself and leave us alone.
Reply
Yeah sweeping floors and cleaning toilets, right? Your pathetic, "oh I work for the gaming industry, bow down to me." You sound like a child trying to push people around with the "who's got bigger balls" argument. Go play with yourself and leave us alone.
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 7:32AM Royalkin said
Great, let the disappointment and failscade begin.
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 9:16AM Ixliam said
Sure there will be more that comes out once the NDA drops. But as someone in beta, I cancelled my pre-order already for this. I have already played World of Warcraft.
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 9:29AM (Unverified) said
@Ixliam
And if that is your opinion, and I don't think anybody can dispute you too hard on it. I was sick of wow, but I still couldn't get myself to try rift. Why quit wow to play wow? Now, I personally feel there is enough difference in swtor to keep me in for my pre-order, so I'll forge ahead, but there definitely may be too much similarity to wow for some people out there.
Reply
And if that is your opinion, and I don't think anybody can dispute you too hard on it. I was sick of wow, but I still couldn't get myself to try rift. Why quit wow to play wow? Now, I personally feel there is enough difference in swtor to keep me in for my pre-order, so I'll forge ahead, but there definitely may be too much similarity to wow for some people out there.
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 9:28AM X said
COOL
Posted: Sep 25th 2011 7:50PM Bhima said
The game is good (played the beta), though it really feels like a great single player RPG that just happens to have some multi-player elements to it. Sorry, thats just not worth a subscription fee to me. I hope the game does well but I've got my eye on a game that looks at multi-player as an actual integral part of the game: GW2.
Posted: Sep 30th 2011 11:48AM Bhima said
@badr
I can totally understand what you mean! That's like, exactly what happened to GW1 right? They made you buy crap in their store or else you wouldn't be able to wins the game!
Oh wait no they didn't. Learn about the GW1 store and Anet's plans for GW2 before you troll. Then again, if trolls actually read something they would probably cease being trolls.
Reply
I can totally understand what you mean! That's like, exactly what happened to GW1 right? They made you buy crap in their store or else you wouldn't be able to wins the game!
Oh wait no they didn't. Learn about the GW1 store and Anet's plans for GW2 before you troll. Then again, if trolls actually read something they would probably cease being trolls.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 10:31AM spamero said
Fucking idiots launching on xmas.. are they fucking RETARTED????
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