New Star Wars MMORPG in the Making?

By Pete Haas: 2007-10-31 18:23:46

The rumors about BioWare working on a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game based on the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series were given new life when it was announced Tuesday that BioWare and LucasArts had joined into an alliance to create a “ground-breaking interactive entertainment product” - a super-exciting way of saying “we’re making a video game.” They also created an equally vague website, LucasArtsBioWare.com, which consists solely of the press release and links to BioWare’s mailing list sign-up form and their forums.

Hopefully they’ll give us more to chew on soon. Given the fact that BioWare Austin has been working on an unnamed MMORPG since last year, it’s a natural assumption that it would be based off of KOTOR, a critical and commercial success. The involvement of LucasArts, the gaming arm of George Lucas’ empire, and the sagging subscription numbers for Star Wars Galaxies, the MMORPG published by Lucas Arts in 2003, only strengthen the case.

BioWare has a track record of producing solid, story-based single player RPG’s based on existing franchises. The Knights of the Old Republic games were set thousands of years before George Lucas’ movies and though there’s scant information on the era, I thought they did a great job with creating vivid characters and worlds that fit into Star Wars lore, and in many ways enhanced it. I’d be very interested to see what they’d do if given the opportunity to create an entire MMO universe. Will their skill with single player RPG’s translate well to multiplayer environments? (ed note: Blizzard also produced great single player games before tackling World of Warcraft, I’d say this is a safe bet) Star Wars is still a very popular and bankable franchise and that license by itself could make this game a strong contender on the MMORPG scene – sorry, this alleged game. We still don’t know for certain but a KOTOR MMORPG, though it’s an annoying acronym to keep writing out, certainly seems like a promising “ground-breaking interactive entertainment product.”

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RELATED: bioware, star wars, lucas arts

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kenny
April 12, 2009 at 06:35

SWG failed as a game,i dnt Know what the ppl where thinking wen they made up tht game, i hope tht this starwars game tht is coming out is much more better than Than SWG, wen it comes out could u plz let us no Thx :D

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lolawesomelol
November 10, 2008 at 23:49

omg this would be awesome! galaxy is stupid. this would make my day!

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Miles
October 29, 2008 at 19:55

i hope its a success and cant wait till it comes out. make sure to let us know when it comes out before it comes out, please and thank you

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Aaron
October 22, 2008 at 00:01

SWG failed because Sony Online Entertainment ran it. That is the only reason. They have no clue what they are doing. Sure, Everquest did good, but EQ2 is crap. When the games get more in depth and intense, SOE has no idea what they are doing. Personally, I can't wait for this game, if it is anything like SWG, with the ambiance, environments, everything, except combat. And, jedi wasn't hard to get to, even when the game first came out.

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Matthew
October 20, 2008 at 13:35

Wow! I hope it comes out like WOW but NOT like SWG SWG was kinda crap to me. I mean i just got my character a jedi then when i log in the next day BAM i see jedi walking around Mos eisley. I hope this is a new record breaking hit :P

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Alex S
September 8, 2008 at 05:42

I personally think that a cool Story setting for this game would be the Mandalorian Wars. Weve all heard about them in KOTOR and KOTOR 2 and would create a decent PvE and PvP environment. PvE would be things such as getting ranks in jedi council, sith council etc. PvP could be based around the mandalorian wars and how the Jedi's went into a blood frenzy if i can remember well. Please oh please dont make classes, except a system where you can speciallise in different roles. ive played multiple MMOs, Guild wars, wow, runescape (shiver) and the things i disliked about guild wars and wow was the set roles you could play with a single character. But runescape (shiver) i enjoyed the way you could change what you did when you liked it. Sort of the way in KOTOR series where you can be a jedi one moment, or a commando the next.

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Robin
June 17, 2008 at 00:03

I seriously hope its Monthly pay because otherwise it will be lacking serious quality and be another SWG except on a lower budget o.O
Also would be kinda cool to see a MMORPG during the old republic when, definatly cause there is a jedi civil war to base things off of so every single person cant run around as a jedi with there over cheap lightsaber out RPing the same story...
But i seriously hope they go starwars and dont try and make a starwarsish kinda game or something cause they already have such good storyline and such, Wonder if there going to retreat to WoW mimicing or actually go and create there own designs like AoC for combat and other innovations.

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billy
June 16, 2008 at 13:59

as long as it actually takes alot of effort and skill to reach the rank/proffession of jedi then im in, i am one of those sore people who took a long time getting to jedi only to have SWG decide to let anybody just START the game as a jedi.

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Firestorm
May 28, 2008 at 23:10

Don't forget the Mando's! Whoot! Be great if its free subscription.

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samuel
May 27, 2008 at 18:53

this is gonna be awesome

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Mahatma Ghandi
May 2, 2008 at 16:42

the news to them making a MMORPG for star wars is exciting as long as it dosnt blow goats like SWG. just make it exactly the same system as WOW but star warsy and uve got yrself a massive hit!

Simple as that ..

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Jesus
April 23, 2008 at 21:29

As long as its good and doesnt have a monthly fee om good with it oh and hopfully Lightsabers wont be uber expensive

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Curtis Saunders
December 10, 2007 at 23:32

PLeas let it be a star wars mmo for x box 360 AND PLEASE DONT SCREW IT UP LIKE SWG

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KSUfan11
March 12, 2009 at 01:37

If it were a MMORPG, trying to get the same effect as World of Warcraft, then it would only make the most sense that it be PC/Mac exclusive. I personally agree with you on the idea of making the game multi-console. It would be awesome if they would somehow combine all of the console servers together so someone on a PC could be playing someone on a PS3 or Xbox360. And yes, I'm tired of crappy Star Wars let-downs. The Force Unleashed was a great game, but they could have added so much more. Hopefully they get something right...if they ever come out w/ this new MMORPG.

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Jaydub
December 6, 2007 at 17:02

I truly wish them all success. But I have to question the market's need for another Star Wars-based MMORPG when are taken seriously by SWG has seriously flagged in terms of subscriptions, and then further alienated many long-time players with so-called "enhancements" that actually limited game play.

Here's hoping those concerns/experiences are taken seriously by BioWare and LucasArts.

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