Thursday, January 25, 2018

Star Wars: The Old Republic has long been in maintenance mode, and there are just no good news for the MMO.

I received quite a few e-mails from angry gamers about the "false advertisement scam" Bioware pulled, which promised great rewards to those that subscribed, only to later reveal that it was a launcher bug - advertising a promotion from a while back.

Yes, that's right. The launcher had incorrect information, and Bioware/EA is refusing to do anything about it. In fact, apparently any promotion offered due to a "bug, glitch, mistake", or that "was not authorized", will not be honored. Yep, EA can advertise whatever they want, and then claim it was a mistake/bug/whatnot, and get away scot-free.

I reached out to my source at Bioware, who has long been working on Anthem, and while I am assured that game is finally becoming quite promising (after years of limbo indecisions), I am also told that SWTOR has been all but abandoned.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has a very small team working on it. My source flat out stated that less than a "handful of developers are actively working on SWTOR", moreover they are "prioritizing money making opportunities over content and bug fixes".

Here is the real kicker. Bioware has everything riding on Anthem. If the game succeeds, Bioware will adapt to support it, abandoning everything other than their single player games. If it fails, Bioware will most likely be absorbed into EA, and SWTOR will be shut down.

No matter how you look at it, SWTOR is done for. If not now, then in 2019 when Anthem releases.
The one (somewhat) good thing I learned, is that Bioware/EA are also kicking around the idea of letting SWTOR run until the license expires. Having said that, there are also rumblings that Disney is not at all happy with EA at the moment, and is looking at Activision, Take-Two, and Ubisoft for future Star Wars games. My source was not sure how this would impact SWTOR.


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