Early access to Star Wars: The Old Republic kicked off yesterday for those who pre-ordered the game, ahead of the MMO's official launch on December 20.
Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz said in a research note distributed this morning that, as of last night, EA had 106 Old Republic servers operational, with 64 in the US and 42 in Europe.
In contrast, World of Warcraft has 491 operational servers between the US and Europe.
"EA started staging players who had pre-ordered the game into the servers a couple days ago in order to spread out login queues and hopefully avoid digital gridlock on the launch day," he said.
"We received our invitation to begin playing yesterday and immediately logged in. We can happily report that we had no problems starting up the game, creating our Jedi Knight character, or playing through the first few bits of the game.
"The population of the US Star Wars servers already appears to have significantly grown in density, with three servers classified as 'full', five classified as 'very heavy', 27 classified as 'heavy', 29 classified as 'standard', and none classified as 'light'.
"In contrast, the European servers still appear fairly empty, with 2 classified as 'standard' and the rest classified as 'light'."
The Old Republic's beta attracted two million players.
Have you started playing the game and what are your early impressions?
Comments
17 comments so far...
damoxuk on 15 Dec '11 said:
Looks to be a big launch. I only just pre-ordered it yesterday so no early access for me. But anyway after having tired of Wow earlier this year my MMO itch need's scratching.
decampo on 15 Dec '11 said:
So far it's been an absolute blast and cannot wait to get home to continue playing. It's becoming increasingly difficult to even turn on Skyrim or BF3 now.
ensabahnur on 15 Dec '11 said:
Ohh cue the Imperial March music.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ERfmEKdtSIw/S8S5uCgWD7I/AAAAAAAAK20/aQSYrq61G4k/s1600/ds1.jpg
(then get back in the studio and give us KotOR 3!!)
mogel94 on 15 Dec '11 said:
This is the first MMO I'm actually really excited for, I just wish I could afford to pay monthly for it and the cost of it's production makes me think it won't be going free to play anytime soon so thats out of the question. Hopefully they'll get KOTOR 3 started now for the next console generation.
allygray69 on 15 Dec '11 said:
Currently playing on Legions of Lettow server (LOL) PVP server, the (unofficial) UK server. Loving game so far, playing as Imperial Agent.
jdkoke on 15 Dec '11 said:
This is KOTOR3, give it up already. Moan about something worthwhile like HL3
Medven on 15 Dec '11 said:
I preordered at the beginning of November and am still waiting for my access e-mail to come through.
I played through three waves of Beta testing and each time I can say that the game came on in leaps and bounds.
My trouble with it's reception right now is that alot of people appear to compare it to the latest version of WoW but neglect to realise it took them 6 years of trial and error to get there.
I honestly can't wait for my e-mail to come through, I thoroughly enjoyed playing the tests even with minimal populations.
mogel94 on 15 Dec '11 said:
Can I moan about both?
Medven on 15 Dec '11 said:
BUHAHAHAHA!
As soon as i posted a nice thing about SW:tor they sent me an activation e-mail!
Time to get playing;
Type: PVP
Server: Frostclaw
ensabahnur on 15 Dec '11 said:
Can i moan about KotOR 3 and Shenmue 3?
03b2wgm on 15 Dec '11 said:
I think I'll stick to a PvE server when the time comes around for me to play (already have my email just not using it yet because I have work to do).
KMakawa on 15 Dec '11 said:
For the Republic!!!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3374119/zoom.png
Loved these past 2/3 days(forgot) on old republic, level 20 right now. 5 more for my speeder ^^
Medven on 15 Dec '11 said:
Well I posted the above at work, now i'm home and logging on i can confirm that the server populations mentioned in the article are grossly understated! Half of the EU servers I'm looking at say "Full" and there is a 30 min que to get on the one my guild has been assigned.
Also, it wasn't PvP...... =(
KMakawa on 15 Dec '11 said:
You're 3 days into the early access thats why
, servers were quite light on the first day for obvious reasons. But as the days have gone on, its got heavier and heavier. Early access not finished yet either! 5 days or so to go?
jdkoke on 16 Dec '11 said:
That's what I've done. Might get in to PVP later but for now am just gonna play KOTOR3/4/5 etc...
....and no you cannot Mogel and Ensabahnur
They need to add more EU servers btw
jdkoke on 16 Dec '11 said:
f**k it, now av spoke about it am awa to take a half day fae work and get home n play it. I mean my cold is gettin worse n I need to get home to my bed!
See you in The Republic f**kers
MPH on 16 Dec '11 said:
"In contrast, the European servers still appear fairly empty, with 2 classified as 'standard' and the rest classified as 'light'."
Say what? On Wednesday a number of the servers were full. Last night I had to wait 10 minutes to get into the server after logging out to sort out a mouse problem. About 2 hours later a Guild mate said that the queue time had increased to 1 hour. Most servers were showing as full or heavy / very heavy. I guess it depends if you're trying to log in at 6:00 or 18:00 though.