MMORPG players will know about star wars galaxies, amazing potential but poor developers and just lack of substance to the game although the engine was very good and run by Sony
Lucasarts/Lucas have not been happy with how Sony handled it after a promising start and a while ago I did a bit in one of my old news posts in regard to Luacs revealing the license for star wars MMORPG games was now not exclusive to Sonys game
Its estimated that SWG now has fewer than 100,000 subscribers and less than 20,000 active players and after the revamp in 2005 is basically dead
Bioware announced they were working on a top secret MMORPG project and with the merger they did with Pandemic for $860M they have The lead designer of KOTOR and they have some key staff from SWG who left when it was doing well
It does look set that we will soon here that the 3rd Knights of the Old Republic will be MMORPG based around the era it sets it in in the "good old times" of the Star Wars Universe when Jedi And Sith were in larger numbers then when Star Wars Galaxies was set in and caused issues when to many people unlocked the jedi.
There are challenges with such a game like how the Jedi will work but Bioware make great games and will do a great Job I am sure and with EA buying them (probably just for this really) and EA having ties as well with star wars games and rival Lucas Arts, it should make for a strong partnership to work on the details and the experience from EA on past Star Wars stuff they have worked on and Bioware leading the way
Its all not 100% official yet the offical line is...
QuoteIn a recent interview, BioWare co-CEOs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk steadfastly refused to comment on their MMORPGs subject matter (although they did say it was already in playable form). LucasArts followed suit. "LucasArts doesnt comment on rumors or speculation," said the PR rep tasked with handling the publishers MMORPG efforts.
But it is probably a given this will happen
Ick, could be good, but EA have a history of making a screwup of things. Look at Westwood, and Lucasarts did quite well with Petroglyph and Empire at war.
The problem about SWG was the different type of players.
Some wanted an everquest world to explore & make things,
Others just wanted to see the sights, wield a lightsaber & PWNN J0000
Theres room for 2 SWG games.
The original was released broke.
3 things wrecked the game
i) combat balance
ii) take away Perma death for Jedi
iii) strip the classes into 8 basic classes.
I loved the way how skinning animals gave different leather/fur with different strengths at different times. Same as Metal Ore, etc.
It was more of a thinking mans MMORPG rather than a kids.
Unlike in Everquest where my swiftness potion is the same as everyone elses.
Obviously the clever people got rich, but isnt that just like in real life?
Quote from: BeakerIck, could be good, but EA have a history of making a screwup of things. Look at Westwood, and Lucasarts did quite well with Petroglyph and Empire at war.
You need to stop thinking in this way, EA was wrong how they used to do things and got hammered for it becuase they golluped up good companies and merged them into large departments causing the good folk of those companies to then leave.
Take all their recent buys they have bought the company, added their name and their resources and their ownership but they have left the companies as they are - Mythic as an example and Bioware will continue to run as Bioware and just be owned by EA and EA saying it was their MMORPG that was the major thing they were buying them for
The game as well is in playable form apparently already and so a heft of non EA involvement has already occurred
http://www.lucasartsbioware.com/
Meh, Im finally going to buy a Wii in the New Year when Force Unleashed arrives.
WiiMote Lightsabre FTW!!!