Star Wars: The Old Republic's release date is "definitely tied" to data derived from the on-going closed beta test, EA has revealed.
"We're driving towards a date, but the very issue you raised is why we're not announcing a date yet because you want to make sure that these services can last a decade," the exec said.
"It is definitely tied to the beta test feedback that's ongoing and so far, so good. We feel good about the date that we're heading towards but you're right, you could have a Crazy Ivan show up in the September/October beta test and be like, 'wow, I've got to fix that'."
Gibeau explained that EA and BioWare are striving to avoid the technological glitches that hampered the launch of Blizzard's World Of Warcraft.
"You've got to have a great launch and as more and more user feedback comes in we make those polishing decisions on what we're going to get right and nail," he continued.
"The other thing is, the technology of standing these things up and then getting all the server farms to work together, talk to one another, store character records... it's extraordinarily complex and so we want a very stable experience.
"We don't want to happen to us what happened to WoW and a couple of other services where in the first week there were queues trying to get on to the servers, the entire service crashed - we don't want that to happen. So we need to nail and make sure that it's up 24/7 and it's high quality.
"We're totally focused on quality, so whatever the beta test tells us is what will be the determining variable on when we will hit."
Retail sources previously indicated that the MMO could launch in November.
Comments
4 comments so far...
ukdruid on 31 Aug '11 said:
Its good they want to have as smooth as a launch as possible and the reasons for not giving a release date are worthy ones, but damn this wait is killing me, i want it now!!.
The_KFD_Case on 1 Sep '11 said:
"We don't want to happen to us what happened to WoW," says EA
What? They don't want 11-13+ million paying users?....I still would have liked this to have been the single-player experience that a true sequel to the KoTOR games ought to be. Not buying this - no way, no how.
pRM8 on 1 Sep '11 said:
I'm a patient man, It wouldn't bother me if it rolled into 2012 as long as they get it right.
Geckomayhem on 8 Sep '11 said:
I was thinking the exact same thing. Poor choice of words on their part. No one remembers WoW's launch because in light of the monster that it became and how successful everything has been despite setbacks (TBC expansion, anyone?) - and the fact that it was seven years ago - WoW is a shining example of doing things right.
I'm still keen to try out SWTOR for the sole purpose of immersing myself in the Star Wars universe and really just seeing the lore and enjoying everything I hope to encounter. No release date doesn't bother me. But what does bother me is that it appears to lack fluidity - as if they haven't improved upon KOTOR at all. Still, you never know until you experience it for yourself. And I'm not in beta, so I can't pass judgement simply from a handful of videos...