The Old Republic Release Date Speculation

July is almost on us. We have seen a lot of new stuff at E3: Raids, the ‘Return’ trailer, and lots and lots of new gameplay that can be found on youtube. The Sith quests on Tatooine is really well done. I can’t wait till this game comes out. So, Bioware is still playing close to the chest on the release date. I understand why they are doing so.  As a gamer who has been looking forward to this game since he was born, it’s fucking frustrating.

So, what do we know about beta?

We have learned from an interview with Daniel Erickson, that there will be no traditional open beta.

• This is extremely important.  Some will be upset at hearing this, but come on.  With the amount of video and talk all over the interwebs about the game, is there really any need to take ToR ‘for a spin’?
• They have so many people in and ready to test they don’t need an open beta.  Open beta also says, ‘we are about to launch’ It seems that Bioware is really out to spring this game on everyone, in order to combat the Blizzard’s habit of putting out new DLC and/or xpansions .

We know that the writing is done as seen in a recent swtor.com update.

•  I don’t see how they are going to ‘polish’ the game for several months.  I mean this is a business.  I think that a couple of months with the amazing amount of manpower and testers that Bioware has at their disposal I don’t see months and months of polishing. The longer they polish the higher the development costs go.  They have essentially been granted carte blanché by Lucasarts and EA, but come on.

Lastly, the other day I received an email (along with many others who have played SWG) from Sony Online Entertainment stating that SWG was going to close its doors at the end of this year.

• This is extremely interesting to me.  The game is going to turn off on December 15, 2011, but the game is going to be removed from shelved on September 15, 2011.  This is the date that I find most interesting.   I think this date is going go have something to do with the launch of ToR.  My thought is that Lucasarts is not going to want two Star Wars MMOs on the shelves at the same time.  Last thing that anyone involved wants is a bunch of parents who have no idea what is going on; going out to buy their kids ‘The Star Wars MMO’ and end up bringing home SWG.

So, I’m sure by now most of you reading this imagine me sitting at my pc with a tin foil hat on, but come on.  This feels a little more than just coincidence.  So, when do I think that the game is coming out?  I’m not sure, but I will say that if it comes out end of September/early October, it would not surprise me at all.

-wmm

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