Bioware makes an official announcement on the limited launch of The Old Republic MMO, and fans blow a valve... but is Bioware maybe onto something here?
As many regular readers might know, we've been on a lovely three week holiday. But even while trooping about castles and fancy cocktail bars, we heard hints of the furore over Bioware's launch plans for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Long story short... well, we're not getting here any time soon. In fact, many countries outside of North America aren't getting the game any time soon. Here's what Bioware themselves had to say overnight, on their official forum:
Today we've announced the pre-order details for the initial launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and as you may now know, we've taken the difficult but necessary decision to limit our initial launch supply for the game. BioWare and LucasArts are completely focused on building an exceptional game and an exceptional game service to go with it. We decided to constrain our launch capacity to ensure we deliver a great experience to every player. Part of the reason this decision was made was because of the overwhelming demand for The Old Republic, and we're humbled by that level of excitement and anticipation. We fully intend to deliver to you an amazing game when we expand our service post-launch, but right now we cannot commit to any timeframe for when that may happen.
We first got wind of Old Republic issues at E3, when we were told by our EA rep not to bother seeing any of the TOR previews. When a person whose job it is to hype a game tells you not to bother, you know something's up. And this - the limited launch - was the issue.
However, upon reflection, we're not sure this is a bad thing.
You see, MMOs have it tough. Any MMO developer worth their salt wants a big launch, but big MMO launches are complex. There's no game genre quite so demanding on infrastructure as an MMO, and if you get it wrong, and end up with a buggy launch plagued by endless queus and server downtime, it can kill a game. There's no amount of beta testing that can really push your server or service architecture.
However, Bioware's taken another option, with an effectively phased launch. So, what do gamers really want? The game right now, warts and all, or as polished as it effectively can be to ensure longterm MMO viability?
Having played the game, and still quite honestly keen to play and explore Bioware's first MMO outing, I'm actually quite happy waiting, if it's going to get me a more polished and viable product in the long-run. Opting for a limited release is a bold move, but one we hope pays off for the company.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012