By Alec Meer on July 22nd, 2011 at 10:58 am.
Riding high on the wave of fan contentment generated by news that upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will absurdly cost between £45 and £130 (depending on which increasingly bonus-fatted version you want), EA/Bioware have dropped some more major news. Hopefully, this one isn’t quite so distressing.
Eurogamer brings word from EA of the closest we’ve had yet to a release date – “the second half of 2011.”
Seemed pretty likely anyway, given preorders had opened. Well, they had for some people – despite the high prices, queues and limited availability have blighted many folks’ attempts to drop money up-front for the £60 digital deluxe edition of the game, and the sweet, sweet early access it promised.
Oh, what a world this is. Didn’t pre-orders used to be a promotional tool, rather than something to beg for in and of themselves?
Wait, what? The Wikipedia article has stated second half of 2011 a while now.
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Sure, but it’s an MMO – a genre whose games typically get delayed.
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The Wikipedia article also has no source for the release date. It just says “Holiday 2011″, without any citation. So it’s not really a valid information.
Remember kids, when you read something on Wikipedia, search for the “[1]“.
(Well, check them too: http://xkcd.com/906/ )
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Also, you’re quoting LOLipedia. Not exactly a standard for accuracy there.
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I’m not sure if an EA game has ever been delayed for quality reasons. lol
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Well, they’ve been saying 2011 forever now. And it can’t possibly be the first half of it because…. it’s over.
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Poor fools. I just got my early access code by dropping down a fiver at Gamestation. Nice to see I might get to use it before the year is up!
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Still calling it as a flop.
The $300m don’t seem to have been invested in much other than pretty dodgy voice acting (hence the 38gb client).
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38GB… that’s absolutely bonkers.
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It’s hard to know if it’ll be a flop or not. It seems like they’re having no problem selling pre-orders, so I would expect a pretty huge playerbase initially. Whether they stay and pay every month is another matter.
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Pre-orders are a poor indicator though, a lot of failed MMOs managed to sell a fair amount of pre-orders. To make a profit they need people to stick around for a sustained period.
The hype isn’t exactly inspiring but it may be the actual game will draw people in and keep them there so it is hard to call it either way.
That said the cash-in as much possible on existing Bioware IPs behaviour with seen of late does suggest EA isn’t super optimistic.
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38 WHAT?! That’s… I thought Shogun 2 was big.
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I thought it was much closer to $100 million, with that $300m figure being reported by some random, pissed off artist?
And BioWare + Star Wars + lots of money doesn’t scream flop to me. Depends on what you mean by “flop” of course.
I, for one, am looking forward to it. On the whole, response from people who have played it and of that in previews has been very positive.
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Even if it is just a WoW clone, I wouldn’t mind playing WoW in a different universe for a couple of months.
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38 GB is ridiculous.
This is going to have absurdly high first month numbers due to the hype and pre-orders, and the sheer fact it’s Star Wars.
Then the numbers are going to fall like a rock once the 30 day grace window expires.
Launching in the holiday is the worst possible time for them. Blizzard has BlizzCon in October. No doubt they’re going to pull a Voldemort and activate the tattoo on every ex-WoW player with a new expansion launching soon. If they’re doing anything remotely new/interesting with TOR, Blizzard can get it implemented into WoW in a matter of weeks or months.
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So, how are the voices in german, french, spanish? are the voice actors on these languages good?
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Wasn’t Age of Conan almost that size too?
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yep.
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I give it two months before people get sick of the singleplayer content, all the WoW kids go back to WoW, and it becomes a ghost town. Just like with almost every other WoW clone ever (the only WoW clone to see any amount of success was LOTRO, and Turbine themselves have said that that was almost exclusively due to free to play).
So I’m with Nighthood. Flopsville. And it’s going to flop hard, and I’ll be glad to see it flop because I can’t stand reskinned WoW clones. Don’t buy that it’ll be a WoW clone? Do some research on Bioware press releases about The Old Republic. They said one thing that turned me off The Old Republic forever. That thing was: “To break any of WoW’s rules would be utter stupidity. Any of them.”
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“If they’re doing anything remotely new/interesting with TOR, Blizzard can get it implemented into WoW in a matter of weeks or months.”
WoW already had a bigger emphasis on story, cutscenes and voice in Cataclysm. I’m sure TOR will push it further, but their unique selling points don’t seem very unique or selling points to me.
Also, imagine if Blizzard announces Titan at Blizzcon… Ouch!
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@Wulf, there are a lot of people who aren’t at all interested in WoW’s lore, or a fantasy world, that might end up trying this because it’s star wars and sticking around.
I don’t think Bioware wants to just try to cannibalize WoW’s playerbase, as people that just one MMO for another are notoriously fickle and jump back at a moment’s notice. I’m pretty sure they want to bring in new players. The Star Wars theme, the emphasis on story, and the bioware fan base might allow them to do so. We’ll see when it goes live.
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There’s even a slightly more accurate release window announcement. To quote yesterday’s press release:
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“We are targeting Star Wars: The Old Republic to be one of the biggest launches of holiday 2011,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka,
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http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=593263
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Okay.
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Unfortantly the £5 charge for pre-order isn’t holding people back due to idiots I know who happily put money down on it.
Expect to have to pay for pre-orders again over the next couple of years :(
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Oh also as its not a guarentte you will get the game i SOOOOOOOOOO hope my mates don’t get it on release… so i can laugh a lot at them.
And believe me i will laugh!
(they are mates but they like to troll my opinions, this will be revenge if it happens)
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You get to laugh over how they’ve crashed upon the rocks of EA stupidity.
“Digital content has scarcity! Honest guv! It does! Digital content can be scarce. See? I’ve only got 10 of these gigglebites, so I can give out one each to ten people then all the gigglebites are gone! Scarcity! So our preorder slots are scarce, since we only have so many gigglebites for so many peoples!!!”
EA tends to make my brain want to leap out of my ear and go on a vacation somewhere so that it doesn’t have to read or think about EA.
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I’ve had to pay for most preorders I’ve done the last few years so that’s really not something new.
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Initially, it was thought that the pre-order fee was ON TOP OF the regular price, e.g. bringing the total to $65 or whatever. It’s not, however, and putting down a fiver to reserve your copy (and then pay $5 less for the game when it’s out) has been common practice for as long as they’ve been doing pre-orders.
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Yes, the pre-order free is an advance payment; it’s not on top of the purchase price. The FAQ says as much.
On launch day, digital content can be scarce if over-subscribed. The FAQ says, “Our focus is on not only delivering a high quality game, but also in developing a thriving online environment. In order to ensure a great user experience we have decided to limit initial launch supply.” I hope this means that early-adopters won’t have to wait in server queues.
http://www.swtor.com/preorder/faq
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Well you can play it in 2011 as long as you are in the right areas of the world. No launch date at all for anywhere outside America and Europe. They don’t want the plebs spoiling the launch experience for our good colonial overlords it seems:P
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If it’s so close why can’t they pin a date more accurately than just “the last half of the year”? Hasn’t the end of 2011 been the promised release for months now?
Without a release date I wouldn’t even consider pre-ordering, regardless. Not that I think it’d be likely anyhow. This title can wait until launch when I see how things go, and the reaction from consumers.
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Well, we’ve already entered the thick end of 2011…
I wonder if we can crash EA shares by bad mouthing this game everywhere we can?
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This year? Well, I’m glad I was sitting down. I wasn’t expecting that at ALL. No sir.
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I was incredibly pumped for this last year when all the information was cryptic and yet to be fully revealed.
Then time dragged on and the more I found out, the less interested I became.
Then I found out the price and lost interest entirely.
I might be the only person though – a few people I know have already pre-ordered. I’m personally more interested in the concept behind the Secret World, even though I have doubts about it’s execution. TOR on the other hand looks like it will be a slightly more polished Star Trek Online.
But I’m willing to be proven wrong :p
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More polished but far, far less fun. Star Trek Online, for all its faults, is actually a damned good sandbox game. You can fly around, explore, and do whatever the heck you like. You can land on planets, poke strange things with tricorders, save traders from random Orion Syndicate attacks, and things of the sort. It’s actually pretty fun.
What it is not, and I am so thankful for this, is WoW in space. In fact, it’s actually really weird. It’s a bit of Champions Online and a bit of Ultima Online, what with the skills layout and everything. I hadn’t seen anything quite like it. And if they fixed their damn Caitians then I’d be playing it right now. It’s definitely a compelling experience, though.
What TOR will be is WoW in Space, which Bioware has already told us, and they’ve told us not to expect anything else. So expect to NEED six bars of buttons on your screen, and to have stationary combat, and grind, and all the fun stuff that equates to WoW. Star Trek Online may not be the most fun thing ever, not by a long shot, but at least it’s not bloody WoW again.
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A bomb.
That is what it’s going to do. Bomb.
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Pre-ordered the game a year ago on play.com @ €38 and now got this in my mailbox:
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We are writing in regards to your pre-order for Star Wars: The Old Republic
We have been advised by EA, the publisher of the game, that the version of the game you have pre-ordered is no longer being released therefore it is with regret that we are unable to fulfil your original order. Your outstanding pre-order for this item has been cancelled, please note that your card has not been charged.
Star Wars The Old Republic is now due to be released as a pre-order only version with bonus content. This new version of the game will only be available when you pre-order and comes with the follow bonus features.
Early Access to the Head start program and colour stone download
***
And the new price is now €50. Go screw yourselves, EA.
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Wow.
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That sounds like a BS excuse from the store, though it’s certainly EA’s fault. It sounds like EA is charging them far more for the game than they were anticipating, so the store won’t honour pre-orders for the earlier price. Nothing to do with different ‘versions’.
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Pre-orders:
- More expensive!.
- Not garantee to reserve the game for you!.
So, what exactly are EA pre-orders for? the privilege to pay more for a game early on, wen theres not previews?
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Yeah, it could also be play.com. Seeing how €38 < €50 they can now ask for €12 more for what's obviously the same article.
Pre-order prices should be followed. If you're unsure about the price, don't put it in your store.
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Yeah I understand Amazon pre-orderers got the same treatment
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amazon have a pre-order price promise, hit them under that.
If they try to claim “its a different version”, tis not, its the same game you pre-ordered.
Send a few legal lokoing letters to them, it may be only a £5 or £10 but i havebeen told ltos of time this year “its only a £5″
…. i conuted up all the times i have been told this sort of thing and it currently totals £278 from these “only X ammount” convos
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Yeah just double checked, Amazon are going down the route of a “cataloguing error” ie. no price promise because they are two different products! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html?cdForum=Fx369GUSH6NE3DS&cdPage=2&asin=B005DD6R6A&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx3EP7OIYF15GQT
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this is why you don’t pre order games that are more than a year away from release.
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EA: “This game is looking increasingly rubbish! Quick, jack the price up!”
Guild Wars 2 had better be good…
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I have yet to pre-order a game (which is digital, and therefore not limited in number!) in my life. I don’t understand the point of it. It’s an advantage to the producer, but only a hassle to the consumer. Why should I do that?
I’ll go and pre-order a coffee now so I can drink it on Monday? No wait! I’ll just have it right now!
Idiots who pre-order deserve to be punished.
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Correction: this is why you don’t pre order games.
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@Kdansky
I currently have a pre-order for sonic generations and a pre order for xenosaga chronicals, they have not cost me a penny because i have done them at a store (retail store I mean, not online.
Should i be punished?
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*Correction: this is why you don’t pre order games.*
Well it’s pretty much exactly why I preordered it. Still got a diablo 3 pre-order for €32. It’s €40 now and it will only go up.
You can save money by pre-ordering ridiculously early.
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@Quine
Everything I’ve heard from the people who’ve played the various public betas (there are a few a year, now, as ArenaNet are making it available wherever they can) has been exceedingly positive and very ecstatic in an excited, happy sort of way. I’ve been hearing tales about how fun the dynamic events are, and how gratifying it is that it’s so very not WoW (yay for dynamic events!). I’ve also heard people saying that they weren’t penalised for just going out and exploring the hell out of the demo, that it was instead encouraged by the game itself.
So… I’m betting on Guild Wars 2. It’s the only MMORPG I’ve been excited like this about since Ultima Online. It’s something truly new and different. Everyone who’s tired of the old bloody WoW formula will find a home there, I think. (And WoW fans already have a home – WoW. That’ll never change. Sorry Bioware.)
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EA are ridiculous, was looking at the Origins page for TOR and you have to ‘apply’ for the DIGITAL preorder due to ‘limited supply’??!??!
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limited supply on a digital product has got to be the most inane thing i’ve seen in awhile.
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And Anonymous/Lulz/other DOS attack on their exclusive shop in 3, 2, 1…
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“Guys, we’re running out of bytes to send them!”
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This is the one time where that might actually be accurate, given that it’s an MMO. They’ll probably be limiting supply of all versions of the game in order to not have to rush several fire appliances to their server farm because 2 million people attempted to log in to the 10 launch servers they’re provisioning.
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@Keymonk
Haaa. I see we think alike. I made the same joke above.
EA: DIGITAL DATA HAS SCARCITY. Of course it does! All those gigglebites have to go somewhere! DRUGS? Well, I am partial to opiyates and hallucinamogenics… I MEAN DON’T DO DRUGS, KIDS.
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The screenshot headlining this article reminds me of the superlative Episode I: Racer from a decade or so back. Y’know, I’d rather have a sequel to that game than this.
EDIT: I mean another, more modern sequel. I know about Racer Revenge.
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Episode 1 Racer rocked :)
TOR is going to be horrible. I was so excited about the prospect of KOTOR Online, and then every single thing I’ve seen since hearing about it has put me off more and more. I saw a GW2 video and that looked a lot less interesting than I was starting to hope for too.
And even the last BF3 leaks looked like a level pack for BFBC2.
I am pulling a sad face (and daring to hope for DX3).
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“And even the last BF3 leaks looked like a level pack for BFBC2.”
This is why companies don’t like aplha footage leaking out, because peopel don’t understand that alpha means NOT DONE. The game can change dramatically between now and when its out, ltos of graphical stuff won’t be done yet etc.
Seriously if you are makin gan opinion based on alpha footage you are silly, its still got months to go.
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The only videos of GW2 I’ve seen that look less interesting are those by really bad WoW players who just stand there, mash keys, and then die. They exist, there are public demos, after all. Then you have the videos by skilled players who actually move around a lot, dodge-roll when they need to, and never, ever die. Those videos are amazing.
Hint: If someone is getting knocked into downed state every 10 seconds, they probably don’t have the first damn clue how to actually play the game, and they’re likely going to be the sort of neophyte that’ll be complaining about how the game is too hard when it’s released.
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It’s quite likely that on a lot of computers BF3 will look like BC2. If the specs are anything to go by I imagine it will scale back to look like it if needs be. That could (hopefully) explain that footage too.
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It’s really disappointing how lacklustre this is beginning to look. Coupled with frankly ridicolous prices for the game, it’s looking less and less likely that I’ll be playing this.
Oh well. There’s always Guild Wars 2.
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I was going to play this. My girlfriend loves Star Wars and even though everything I’ve seen spells yet another cluster-grind (not how I managed to avoid the word ‘fuck’. Oh, wait…) I also love gaming with her and so TOR it was.
This was until they started releasing gameplay videos. My girlfriend stared blankly at those, shrugged and said: “This looks like crap.” I want you to understand that my girlfriend loves Star Wars the way I hate WoW. She has accepted that Episode 1 is crap, but still loves it. Because it’s Star Wars. That’s the level of dedication I’m talking about. She hasn’t played a lot of MMOs (actually, she only played Guild Wars) and routinely has no idea why I’m hating on a Random Game 293 or loving a Random Game 783. But she is still put off by what she saw of TOR.
And then she heard about 130$ for collector’s edition. I was gonna get that for her. Despite everything. Because it’s Star Wars. She saw the price and said fuck it, we’re not playing this. I’m not sure how representative of general SW fandom she is (probably not too much) but there you have it.
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I was going to, I was super excited…but £45 for a PC game? Not. A. Chance.
It’s unfortunate that people are actually paying this…..unless with that I get a couple of months sub? Highly doubt it!!
There was a post on reddit about amazon UK CANCELLING preorders and asking folk to order again at a higher price.
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I’m definately steering way clear of the Pre-Order for this. Not making the same mistake I made with Warhammer Online.
Think I’ll wait and see after it’s been around for a few months.
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Was meh interested at first, was less the meh interested after gameplay video. i’m not interested anymore AT ALL after those bullcrap limited supply on digital and awful price tag.
good luck bioware, you’ll need it, one more crap to add on your portfolio
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From what I’ve seen across other news sites the Pre-order situation has gone so well that it’s effectively sold out. Even retail stores like GameStop started putting peoples hopes down.
So despite the price it’s highly anticipated.
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That’s because people are idiots. Don’t people realise that they are setting a precedent for other companies to butt-fuck us like EA is doing with these prices.
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I predict this game will fail, and I almost hope it does.
Its interesting how the more ‘hardcore’ gaming crowd like us were probably initially excited before most people heard of it, but as time has gone on, the hardcore have become less interested whilst the other lot seem to have become more interested. Its only because it has the words ‘Star Wars’ in the title.
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I kind of feel bad for anyone that buys it, to be honest. They get to discover what WoW is like.
I genuinely feel for them.
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Funny enough, the same thing happened over Warhammer Online. Those of us who had heard about Dark Age of Camelot but never got into it got really excited about an MMO other than EVE that actually focused on players fighting players. As time went on, the people that loved WoW and wanted something ‘almost exactly like WoW but not WoW’ got excited as it appeared as if their repeated demands for instances dominating the game (and the game’s competitive side quickly devolved into basically being like WoW PvP: almost entirely instance-focused) were being heard and the actual idea of a war MMO faded. Combine that with GOA running it in Europe and royally screwing up by partnering with HMV, the WORST nationwide retailer in Britain for PC games; it was a turkey and became obvious in the first week.
I should have paid more attention when lead dev Jeff Hickman made the very alarming statement “we’re trying to make a game rather than a world”, supposedly saying that he reckoned other MMO developers focused too much on the in-game world and didn’t make them game-like enough. I think it was obvious to anyone that isn’t blind that the opposite was the case: even in WoW the actual world is heavily neglected and what gets the most dev attention are the very ‘game’ like bits. The amount of instances that saturate WoW make the actual ‘massively multi-player’ component of virtually unnecessary. The most significant parts of the game could run on peer-to-peer or dedicated public servers rather than a Blizzard data-centre.
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Cynicism can be really cynical sometimes…
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The second half of 2011 – for Americans and Europeans, anyway. Everyone else: Don’t call us, we’ll call you. :S
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I pre-ordered because I want to try the game asap. If I dont like it I wont renew my subscription after the initial free 30 days.
Also I’m always a big sucker for the full experience so i usually try and snatch all of the pre-order bonuses.
The 5 euro Pre order fee is boggling my mind though since I’ts Digital.
Well I guess they want to earn those 300 million back quickly so they can start making a profit.
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:(
You aren’t even guaranteed to get it early. You are just paying for the chance to play the game with the bugs in it =/
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http://i.imgur.com/R3OK8.jpg LMAO
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That’s bloody awful – I was half expecting to read:
“Our execs need a downpayment for a string of islands in the Caribbean they are buying and they’re a bit thin on the ground for it, you know; it being the end of the month and all. They’re totally good for the money though, just go ask our bank at some point in the future to get some cash back”
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I don’t quite see where that gets funny.
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The story ends with him cancelling the pre-order. So, It was not that bad.
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Jesus H. Christ.
I feel ya, man.
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That’s horrible! D:
Well, there go the last vestiges of respect I had for EA/Bioware, since that’s an outright con.
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If they stick to that rough date, I’ll probably be too busy getting balls deep into Skyrim.
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I’ll wait. Got relatively burned with AoC and Champions On-line pre-orders. I pre-ordered WHO and played the month out but quite enjoyed my time there. Must look into going back.
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WHAT- http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-unable-guarantee-old-republic-pre-orders
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Yes, Mr. Biscuit talked about that earlier today. It’s fucking ridiculous.
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Ah sorry, missed that.
It is, and I don’t get why people are falling for it =/
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Well, those EA execs only have so many limited gigglebites to share arou–AGCHK! I think my small intestine is somehow attempting to strangle my brain to put it out of its misery!
Seriously, this is painful.
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First of all: £45 and £130. Sucks for the UK. It’s $60 and $150 in the US which is around £8 cheaper for the regular version, and £38 cheaper for the collectors edition. The US price is about the same as what Starcraft II was in the US.
Second: I see a lot of people mentioning a $300 million price tag to make SW:TOR. That number is a total and complete lie. It was made up by a guy who was pissed off that EA gave Mythic to Bioware. Maybe instead of making up lies about BioWare, that angry dev should’ve been mad at himself for how Warhammer turned out.
Third: Bomb? Some people here are saying/hoping it’ll bomb? Not likely since, in the US, the $150 collectors edition sold out in hours. Yes, completely sold out already. In the US, you couldn’t buy it for £130 if you wanted to.
So why the hate here? Maybe it’s just “hardcore” players being upset. You know what? MMOs aren’t for “hardcore” players. If MMOs were made for them, you’d never, ever see an MMO with even 1 million subscribers. Look at the late 1990s for example. Then World of Warcraft came along, and it was insanely easier than other MMOs out there. “What do you mean I don’t lose items/experience when I die? How can the game be fun?” was the warcry of the “hardcore”. Screw them.
Also, since SW:TOR plays more like a single player BioWare game with MMO features, you’re going to get a lot of BioWare’s RPG fans try out the game who may otherwise never, ever touch an MMO. So there’s that.
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Don’t think its anything to do with “hardcore” (whatever the fuck that actually means).
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The hate is directed towards EA and its business ideas here.
its directed towards the really REALLY stupid pre-order fee (for something that you MIGHT NOT GET) for the simple reason that if the plan works (and due to idiots it looks like it will) they will continue doing it.
Look back at the arguments against DLC, that it would lead to stuff ebgin cut out of games to be added later etc etc. And then look at some of the capcom games now like MVC3…..
Quite a lot of peopels fears about where the industry will go unless you call them out on the stupid practices have come to pass :(
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Funny that you mention MvC3.. The fact that they are now releasing pretty much an expansion pack(that’s stand alone, so great for people who never bought the original) seems pretty indicative of their DLC characters being a failure. There was more DLC planned, but instead it was turned into a new disc release. I’m sad that it’s still not getting a PC release.
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Milky has the right of it. That and it’s just Yet Another WoW Clone.
Also, where’s your evidence that the $300m figure is incorrect? For all I know the ‘correction’ is just a rumour in and of itself.
(Also, I think someone is sounding a touch too butthurt and defensive. Did you fall for EA’s trickery and now you’re just trying to recoup what little pride you have left? it kind of sounds like it. Sorry.)
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Wow it’s really hilarious all the things people are saying here when they have so little information about the game.
People who have seen videos and read some articles think that they can judge the game and call it a “fail, bomb, etc”, to these people I say you are a tool and I hope you don’t play the game anyway because you’re already a negative person.
Who says they released preorders over a year before release? It’s coming out end of the year.
Year early? I don’t think so.
If you haven’t even tried the game yet, then just keep your opinion about the game to yourself as nobody gives a f&%*.
The preorder is mainly for the early access, and the other two versions are only if you’re interested in in-game/RL swag (except for a couple things like the soundtrack or IG auction house), people who are going to pay that much for a game don’t care about your opinion and neither do I when people who have little to no information to back something up make a bold accusation about the game that for the most part is false.
So in closing, all you haters, GTFO. Thank you.
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Your fanboy is showing. Even if the game is good, you are defending the horrific pricing and non guarenteed preorder that they charge for? Seriously, you are deluded mate.
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Obvious fanboy is obvious, most of peopels reasons are not about the game itself, but about the pricing around it, as its bad for our favorite hobby.
In conclusion, GTFO fanboy
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Please use your intelligence and common sense, paying £5 on top of the already high game price to give you a chance that you might get beta access is stupid, which ever way you look at it. This is nothing about the game.
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More amusing butthurt defensiveness! Can we get more TOR fanboys in here? This is amusing. Perhaps we could coax them all into dancing a merry jig for us with the promise of non-limited beta keys.
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And later on The Jerry Springer Show we’ll meet a man that has married the Sim he created of his ideal woman and Stubbs The Zombie’s last living developer that will admit it.
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while yes the majority of us have not played swotor , we have seen enough and read enough to realise that it is nothing but a wow clone, and we’ve all played plenty of those.
if it walks and quacks like a duck….dialogue choices aren’t enough to turn it into a chicken
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Thats odd, since I can buy it right now, from gamestop. http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/star-wars-the-old-republic-online-collectors-edition/92635
As for bomb, I think EA will probably make a tidy profit on this. At the expense of what reputation bioware still has. But a couple months out, I think you’ll be seeing server populations crash. Shrug, Not paying 150 dollars for a plastic cast in china statue, and a cd.
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I actually want TOR to fail because of all the terrible design choices they made. This is not the Star Wars mmo I’m looking for. Also, KOTOR 3. I want to see Bioware knocked down a peg or two, they make crap nowadays.
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Unfortunately, I have to agree.
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If TOR fails, surely, surely that’ll put an end to the idea that you can get rich quick with a subscription-based WoW clone.
I’m hoping for one extreme or the other; either it’s unexpectedly the Best Game Ever and we all must play it, or it’s a total flop and the industry learns from it.
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Yeah, I tend to agree.
I don’t enjoy WoW-style MMOs.
I don’t enjoy BioWare games.
I don’t enjoy anything Star Wars that happened before Vader became a dad.
So this game is clearly not my thing.
Even so, I’d probably just ignore the game instead of waste time hating on it. However…
Should EA/BioWare’s pricing tactics and design choices prove to be successful then it’s bound to catch on. And I want £5 pre-order fees to become the norm about as much as I want to see another generation of WoW imitators.
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@TillEulenspiegel
I’m inclined to agree. :| I’m sick of WoW fans and how hacked they are, to be frank. I mean, if you look at Bioware’s roster and their hiring tactics, then many of the people either have experience in the field of psychology, or you’ll see Bioware requesting that. I’ve mentioned social engineering before, which some amazingly stupid and decidedly butthurt people mocked (their lack of knowledge was showing).
The WoW model is exactly like the Zynga model, it’s designed to addict weak-willed people, lock them into an endless cycle of repetitive tasks, and then never offer them closure on their character or experience. So they are there, their weak-willed friends are there, and they can’t muster up the desire for a mass exodus. Thus they keep paying Blizzard month after month after month, likely buying things from the store, too.
I’m bitter, yes, but it’s because I’ve lost people to WoW. People I liked. People whose lives have been almost destroyed by that damn game. It’s like when they get hooked they just forget about things like a social life, and their job, and they just raid, raid, and raid some more. There are sensible WoW players, I’ll give you that, but the game is designed to prey on the weak-willed. You can’t have that many people who’re educated in psychology and deny that truth. That’s what Blizzard does.
Blizzard is much like Zynga in how they hack people. And TOR will fail vs WoW. Why? Their psychology-fu is likely not as strong as Blizzard’s. The addiction will draw the weak-willed back to WoW, and hopefully the WoW abomination will be the only game left embracing the horrible ideas that it was built upon. We’ll get new ideas, we’ll have games without grind, games that provide people with closure. Guild Wars 1 did that, but it wasn’t a proper MMORPG, so I’m hoping that Guild Wars 2 will take what made Guild Wars 1 special and add the MMORPG part to it.
I’m hoping that Guild Wars 2 will be a sans grind game that gives people fun for whatever time it lasts (even if it’s only a couple of months) and then provides closure at the end with an honest to god ending instead of a raiding cycle. Sure, put the raiding cycles in for those that demand them, but like Guild Wars at least have an ending there. That way you’ll give the weak-willed closure so that they can move onto other things.
I really want to see the death of the WoW beast. It was built upon obnoxious, horrific ideas and I really don’t want to see it breed any more. It and its spawn need to die.
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I’m surprised there’s seemingly so much interest in people wanting to play this. Almost nothing i’ve seen of this game looked appealing or interesting, the CGI trailers notwithstanding. If this was still 2003/4 I could understand it probably but at this point, no thanks. The pricing schemes are impressive though, from EA’s pov that is.
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The old republic seems to be going down the WoW-path while voices on their own forums have been screaming not to make it Space-WoW from the very beginning. Obviously making as much money as possible is the main goal for Bioware/Ea. This argument is reinforced with their pre-order/price hike scheme now that some part of the community is not impressed by what they have shown. We can all point in Ea’s direction but bioware shares in the blame as well. They decided to make Space-WoW.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m glad Mythic is assisting Bioware. At least now Bioware can ask someone what to do when their mmo tanks.
Bioware-Ea got some major credit with their Mass Effects 1 and Dragon Age 1 games but then they squandered it with Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 (for some). The Old Republic could very well be the title that knocks them out.
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I was feeling cautiously excited for this game. Then I saw actual gameplay. No sale for me. Only mmo I want to get is end of nations made by the creators of command and conquer. It’s an mmo rts. :-p
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I am sick of fantasy games. I love Star Wars. KOTOR is still one of my fondest gaming experiences. So yeah, a WoW clone set in the Star Wars universe: “Shut up and take my money.” Even better it looks like you don’t have to play it as an MMO if you do not want to. This way, me and my fiancee can Co-Op it together, and just pay the monthly fee whenever we want to play additional content.
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Help… Th EA Police have found my negative posts and stripped me of my BFBC2 rank as punishment…
Damn you EA. DAMN YOU!!!!
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Holy Kenobi, what’s with all the murderous hate.
This game takes up 38GB, has 1600 hours of PVE content (not factoring in PVP), spans 19 planets, took over 900 voice actors 5 years to record… the single most expensive video game project EVER in the history of the known human world… and you can own it for $60 US Dollars (the price of a night out) from Amazon.com without any preorder fee.
Just listen to yourselves whine, in the face of these facts.
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I wouldn’t say it’s hate. It’s just that with all this stuff in the game the previews still look really boring.
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soo how much is this going to be in aus, I’m guessing $100 for the basic game even though our dollar is better than us,
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I’m honestly not really sure why this price point seems to be an issue? I’ve been sorting through rage and haughty comments about the game with it’s inevitable naysayers, but I still can’t figure out why.
Is this expensive for a game in the UK? The collector’s seems too much, but duh. Collector’s Editions are stupid and meant for people with more money than sense.
Is it because they make it seem like you have to pay all $60 now? I mean, I was expecting $50 since it’s a PC game, but 10 extra dollars isn’t enough to change my mind about the whole game. And my account only has been charged for $5 for the pre-order. I actually thought I was paying all of it now like I do on steam, but now I have to watch out for a sudden $55 charge on my account sometime in the future D: But none of those small issues seem to be worth some of the anger I’m seeing here. I don’t get it.
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Monthly fee on top of said price…….there isn’t a game out I’d pay a monthly fee for and never will be…let alone this bland drivel I keep seeing in the trailers…if this wasa Sci FI MMO with out the Star Wars tag being shown I doubt anyone would be interested going by whats so far been released…
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