The delay in SWTOR launch is based in part off of Blizzard’s launch of World of Warcraft. Gamasutra explains in an article with quotes from the Citi 2011 Tech Conference. SWTOR has an intended launch with a strong focus on the initial player base. They would rather limit this number and give better service to a smaller demographic than try to reach too many people at once, this diluting the experience overall for everyone.
“”We’ve actually studied WoW pretty carefully,” CFO Eric Brown said at the Citi 2011 Tech Conference on Wednesday.
“”We spent a lot of time studying the first twelve months or so of WoW, and just to be clear here, when they initially launched, they did not launch in dual geographies. They went North America only.””
Gamasutra covers more from Brown on the topic:
“”We really want to make sure that the first group of users into Star Wars has the best experience,” he said.
“For example, when they log on, they have instant access. [Even] when they’re playing in a densely-populated world, the bandwidth and response time is excellent. So quality of service is really important to us.”
This is apparently so important to BioWare that it influenced their decision to limit the number of copies of the game that will be available on launch. If you want it, you need to be in on the early orders or you could miss out on a launch-start and have to wait until after launch when more copies are made available. This is all meant to be an effort to be sure initial customers get the best experience they possibly can from the game.
Are they learning from WoW’s mistakes? Do you think they’re right in the choice to limit the game and delay launches? Will it affect your decision to play or not play SWTOR?