In a press release by GamaSutra, it was announces that LucasArts signs a multi-year, studio-wide Unreal Engine 3 Licensing Agreement from Epic Games. The press release states: LucasArts and Epic Games, Inc. announce a long-term, studio-wide agreement for LucasArts to develop multiple projects using Epic Games’ award-winning Unreal Engine 3 for the engine’s supported platforms. “”Unreal Engine 3 is a forward-looking solution that shortens the path between inspiration and execution on a wide variety of gaming platforms,” said Zak Phelps, director of technology at LucasArts. “We are thrilled to add another exceptional tool to our technology mix.” “”LucasArts is now primed to capitalize on Unreal Engine 3’s ability to scale across platforms, from mobile, through PC and console all the way up to the next generation of games,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “”We can’t wait to see what happens when LucasArts combines their talented workforce and…
News
SWTOR Forums “Off Topic” Section Gone Forever
On April 22 the “Off Topic” forum was closed at Star Wars: The Old Republic. While some might not consider this breaking news, there are others who beg to differ. Some forum regulars are in a huff over the takedown of their Off Topic forums; even going so far as to threaten to unsubscribe. The official notice of the closure of the forum states: Hello Everyone! As of today, it is no longer possible to create posts in the Off-Topic forum. We know some of you may want to preserve old discussions or posts, so the forum will be viewable until 4/22. After this date, the Off-Topic forum will no longer be available.Post all discussion about this topic in this thread. Please remember to follow the rules when posting about this subject! Thank you! As you might imagine, it didn’t take long before posts of complaints over the decision…
Paid to Play SWTOR?
Would you love to get paid to play SWTOR? Who wouldn’t, right? Steven Reid, the Senior Community Manager from BioWare tweeted some news you’re gonna get excited about. If you live in or near Austin, Texas (me, me!) and have an interest in working in QA at BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic, here’s some news you’ll definitely be interested in. Make plans to head on over to Austin Books this upcoming Saturday and you may just get your chance. In fact, it may be the big break you’ve been waiting for to get into the gaming industry and what better video game to do it with than SWTOR? This Saturday is a very special day for gamers wanting to make their presence known within the gaming industry because Austin Books tweeted some information all gamers will be interested in. They will be holding a special Star Wars Day…
Old Republic Action Figures Incoming?
A new rumor is floating around and creating a lot of talk amongst Star War fans. RebelScum, from the “Star Wars action figure site”, has passed on a rumor that he’s heard recently concerning new action figures for Star War fans to collect. Rumor has it that a new Hasbro video game pack containing five action figures is on the way to being a reality. It’s believed this action figure set will be taken from either “The Force Unleashed II” or “The Old Republic”. You can refer to Hasbro confirms The Old Republic action figures, to read where this issue has been discussed before, in which Hasbro’s Derryl DePriest confirmed plans to create action figures from one of these two video games in the near future. It looks as if now these plans may be taking shape. The question on everyone’s mind is which characters will be selected? Could it…
StarWars.com forums closing down
It’s official that the StarWars.com forums will be closing down. At the end of this month, they will become read-only so it’s time to save, copy or print anything that you deem important information because come Friday, June 3rd, it will disappear from cyberspace forever! An official announcement by Pabawan reads as follows: At StarWars.com, we are always evaluating the various features of the website in order to provide the best experience to our users. As we review new community-based interactive features for the future, we have decided that the Official Message Boards at forums.starwars.com will no longer be part of the site. April 2011 will be the last month of active message boards on StarWars.com. On Friday, April 29 the forums will be locked into a read-only mode, so that users can look through older posts and copy any they may wish to keep for posterity. On Friday, June…
Selling Currency to a Game Not Yet Released?
Apparently you can buy SWTOR credits now, even though the game has not yet released. For gamers who partake in gold/currency-buying, this might be good news. For others, it’s an early sign of the annoying “gold-spammers” might cause in the increasingly popular game. Companies selling Star Wars: The Old Republic currency for real-world money are already on the Net and bartering their goods, months before the expected release of the game. Popular gold seller IGXE (Internet Game Exchange) recently released a press release about their placeholder pricing on SWTOR credits at £650 for 1000 credits. A simple search online will show you many other companies getting in the SWTOR action with promises of credit/gold to players. Just a few examples of the existing domains hawking non-existent credits include: starwarscredit.com, swtorforsale.com, swtorsell.com, swtorgolds.com, swtorgold.net, cheapswtorcredit.com, buyoldrepubliccredits.net, and cheap-swtor-credits.org. The closer it gets to launch time for the game, the more we…
Making of SWTOR Book Removed from Amazon’s Listing
If you’re looking for the book, The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic, you might not be able to find it any more, at least not on Amazon. Last month the official SWTOR forums were abuzz about the book but now it seems to have disappeared. The release date for the book was listed as November 1, 2011, leaving many fans to speculate that this could be the same time the game is expected to be released. So why did The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic get pulled from Amazon’s listing? No one knows yet exactly why the book was pulled. We just know that it went down quickly after the new about its existence began to spread around the Internet amongst Star Wars fans. There are several different reasons why Amazon might pull a book that was listed but not released yet….
EA conference webcast Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Electronic Arts Inc. will release its financial results for the fourth quarter fiscal year 2011 after the close of market on Wednesday, May 4, 2011. In conjunction with this release, Electronic Arts will host a conference call to review its financial results for the fourth quarter, discuss its outlook for the future and may disclose other material developments affecting its business and/or financial performance. Listeners may access the conference call live via a dial-in number or audio webcast. Hopefully investors will ask many questions regarding Star Wars: The old republic, and if we are really lucky, we might get one step closer a release day – One can dream! The conference call will be hold Wednesday, May 4, 20112:00 pm Pacific Time (5:00 pm Eastern Time) Webcast: http://ir.ea.com Press release: Electronic Arts’ financial results release will be available after the close of market on May 4, 2011, on Electronic Arts’…
Mos Eisley Radio host Joins The SWTOR Team
Brooks Guthrie, co host on the popular Mos Eisley Radio podcast, has been hired as audio editor at BioWare Austin, to work on up and coming SWTOR videos. Brooks will be working with Brandon Miletta, who were formerly host on the TOROcast podcast. Mos Eisley Radio was the 1st site to be featured in SWTOR’s Fan Site Spotlight, and has grown big audience over the time. In their most recent podcast the guys made it clear that Mos Eisley Radio and Open Bounty will continue as a podcasts with a new unannounced host. All the best to wishes to Brooks Guthrie getting a dream job on the SWTOR Team.
EA Working On ‘Revolutionary’ Unannounced MMO
While EA’s Bioware is hard at work preparing Star Wars: The Old Republic, Electronic Arts might announce new MMORPG plans in near future. According to a job listing on industry website Gamasutra, Electronic Arts’ Redwood Shores suite of studios is working on an unannounced massively multiplayer online game, making me guess that a upcoming game will be Command & Conquer-based. Information regarding the position is a bit unclear at the moment. The Gamasutra Posting refers to an MMO Web Architect position, but the EA Jobs link at the bottom of the page redirects to you a Java Engineer position related something to their The Sims Universe. No further details about the project itself were given.
Watch out for the SWTOR Beta Scam
The community team over at teh official SWTOR forums, have issued a warning about an ongoing Beta Scam for Star Wars: The old republic: It has come to our attention that there are multiple individuals and sites claiming to sell testing accounts, “beta keys,” or other offers of access to our Game Testing Program. All of these offers are false. BioWare is not issuing invites to Game Testing via any method other than those we outline here on SWTOR.com. We must caution you that these offers are often scams designed to steal your money, credit card information, or identity. While we understand that you are eager to participate in Game Testing, your security is extremely important, and attempting to participate in these offers could put you in very real danger. Furthermore, the sale of accounts with access to the Game Testing Program is strictly prohibited by the Game Testing Agreement. We closely…
Blizzard Wish Success for Star Wars: The Old Republic
So it turns out Blizzard can not only produce a masterclass in MMOs, but also a masterclass in… class. Narrowly following comments by EA that World of Warcraft was in some respects like a shopping list, the Blizzard riposte was to wish their rivals well and remark on how a bigger pie means bigger slices for everyone, or something to that effect. Blizzard’s co-founder and Executive Vice President, Frank Pearce, tells MCV in an interview that, “This is a game that has an opportunity to grow the MMO market if done right and therefore is very important to the industry as a whole, not just EA. “We’ve talked about this internally and from our perspective we hope they make an enjoyable game because they’re going to bring in a lot of new players to the MMO genre, and those players’ idea of whether or not they like this type of…
1.5 million interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic beta
As we reported yesterday Chief financial officer Eric Brown reviled that around 1.5 million gamers have registered their interest in being part of a Star Wars: The Old Republic beta. … We’ve got well north of a million, million and a half ready to test for free,” he said of Star Wars the Old Republic beta. “We’re not that concerned about generating initial demand. For us it’s about creating the right experience, expanded beyond the tier one and the tier two users. You’ve got people that have never played an MMO before but are interested in Star Wars, to engage and give it a try. What’s really important to us is striking the right balance so that we serve the needs and demands, requirements of the core, pre-existing MMO subscribers. “They demand a lot of content, a lot of community, guilds are very important, special group activities, raids and things…
SWTOR will not launch before July 1, says EA
During today’s Lazard Capital Markets Technology and Media Conference, EA CFO Eric Brown said that the firm would not release Star Wars: The Old Republic during the firm’s FY11. At the same time, he reconfirmed that it will be released sometime during calender 2011. “So we said it’s going to launch sometime in calendar, but not within Fiscal 11. So that basically pens down between you know, April 1st and December 31st of this calendar year. It’s also reasonable to infer that it’s not in our Q1 guidance. We gave Q1 Fiscal 11, Fiscal 12 non gap revenue guidance, minus 39 minus 44 cents and I think it’s not unreasonable to infer that it’s not included in that 90 day period.” So it looks like March-June is likely out, leaving a release date of July 1 at the earliest. Personally I belive it will be out some time this fall….
Third SWTOR Novel in the works
Random House has published their 2011 Fall Catalog, and it has goodies for us Star Wars: The old republic fans. Apparently Drew Karpyshyn will be the auther of a upcoming SWTOR novel yet to have a titel. Drew Karpyshyn was Senior Writer on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as well as both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. He has also wrote Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Darth Bane: Rule of Two, and Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil which are some of my favorite Star Wars novels. With the success of the New York Times bestselling Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance and the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived in Spring 2011, this original new novel set in the world of the game by BioWare and LucasArts is sure to bring fans who want a truly immersive, transmedia experience! Key Points # EXCITING FAN-FAVORITE…
EA retracts forum user ban
Electronic Arts has retracted the Bioware Social Network ban on a user who questioned if Bioware had ‘sold their souls to the EA devil’. As we wrote on Friday, the forum ban then rippled through Electronic Arts’ DRM system and blocked user v_ware from being able to play Dragon Age 2 at all. ‘Now I’ve got a dead game for 50 euros,’ said v_ware at the time. Despite the fact that moderators repeatedly told v_ware that the ban was not a mistake and that the Dragon Age 2 block was in accordance with the terms of service, EA now claims that the extent of the block was a mistake. ”’Unfortunately, there was an error in the system that accidentally suspended your entire EA account.’ EA’s Senior Director of Customer Support, Boyd Beasley, wrote. ‘Immediately upon learning of the glitch, we have restored the entire account and apologize for the inconvenience…
Star Wars: The Old Republic Delayed into 2012?
The folks over at 1-up.com posted an article predicting that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be delayed. 1-up.com predicts that we have to wait another year to play the game, and belive the game will out in 2012. This is of course purely speculation, and not confirmed by BioWare, so don’t start a riot yet folks. Check out the full text about SWTOR below, and read the full article here BioWare isn’t known for its delays. On the other hand, MMORPGs are hard to nail down as the genre constantly evolves, and most avoid launching in the crowded holiday release season. DC Universe Online opted to release in the relatively quiet month of January. Only World of Warcraft: Cataclysm had the clout last year to hit in December. What we’ve seen so far has been promising, but the license and development costs make this a pricey proposition. If the…
Pre-Launch Guild Program
We may not have a launch date for Star Wars: The old Republic yet, but many fans are alrady their guild relations. Guild sites have been popping up all over the place, and many big guilds from other MMORPG’s have launched SWTOR sections. To help out non established guilds, BioWare have now unveiled the Pre-Launch Guild Program, that allows players to reserve guild names and establish or join a group with similar interests. As long as your guild meets certain criteria, it will be imported directly into the game at launch. In addition, every guild will get its own mini-site on the official SW:TOR site, complete with guild information, recruitment status and forums. This is a system I have I have missed in many other games and great development in this type of games if you ask me. Its all a simple process, all you have to do is head…
Upcoming book: The Art And Making Of SW: The Old Republic
Amazon.com just announced a new book named Chronicle Books’ The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The book is ofcourse about the development of SWTOR. The book will be released on November 1, 2011.. Hey wait… Did it say November 1? Is that a sign for the release date of Star Wars: The old republic – the game? Here are the details: Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Chronicle Books (November 1, 2011) SRP: $ 40.00 Language: English ISBN-10: 0811875008 Check it out here
BioWare’s Gordon Walton Leaves To Join Playdom Austin
Yesterday EA lost three heads from major studios Playfish and Bioware. BioWare Austin vice president Gordon Walton has left to take on an executive producer role at Disney-owned social game studio Playdom, while two founding members of Playfish, the social game developer EA bought in 2009, are also set to leave the company. EA said in a statement that it’s “business as usual”: “”It is business as usual at all BioWare studios, where we remain committed to creating, delivering and evolving the most emotionally engaging games in the world,” concluded the statement. Electronic Arts is the parent company of BioWare, which also develops the Mass Effect and Dragon Age role-playing franchises. Mobsters and Sorority Life creator Playdom, recently acquired by Disney for a handsome $763 million, is among the top developers of social games on Facebook. A 33-year industry veteran, Walton joins the ranks of many respected stalwarts, like Playdom’s…
EA: Star Wars: The Old Republic “going right at” World of Warcraft
In a presentation at an investment conference Tuesday afternoon, EA chief executive John Riccitiello noted some of the company’s up-coming releases for the year that he expects will boost the company’s share in two key areas of the video game market–first-person shooters and massive multi-player online, or MMO, games. EA has high hopes for Star Wars: The old republic expecting the game to come out sometime late in the calendar year 2011. Riccitiello compared the Star Wars: The old republic to “World of Warcraft,” the most successful MMO game in the market that is produced by Activision’s Blizzard unit. He praised “Warcraft” as one of the “greatest entertainment properties ever built,” but believes the “Star Wars” universe could topple it. “We want to take share,” he said of the MMO category. He added that SWTOR is being built on an improved technology platform that is going to look better than…
HeroEngine Owner Idea Fabrik Founds New US Dev Studio
Last year HeroEngine (which is being used to build Star Wars: The Old Republic) was bought from Simutronics by Idea Fabrik in Germany. Last week the Germans announced the creation of a new game development studio in Northern Virginia: Second Star Interactive. Headed by game industry veteran Darrin Hyrup, Second Star Interactive features a core team with decades of experience at major studios throughout the game industry, including Electronic Arts, Mythic, Bethesda Softworks and Sony Online Entertainment. “Developing our own games is a critical part of our efforts to expand and enhance our technology because it keeps us close to the HeroEngine user experience,” said Neil Harris, President of the U.S. operations and COO of Idea Fabrik. “Darrin and the Second Star team bring a wealth of experience and practical contributions to the table that will help us grow both as a technology provider and as a company.” Second Star…
Insiders are Selling EA Shares
This properly doesn’t meen anything for Star Wars: The old republic, but if you are an invester like me, monitoring insider trades is a very important component to successful investing. We think you should be aware of these insider sales from the first week of February: Kenneth A Barker, SVP & Chief Accounting Officer, sold $99,704 worth of stock on February 3rd, 2011 Stephen G. Bene, SVP & General Counsel, sold $707,087 worth of stock on February 3rd, 2011 Peter Moore, President, EA Sports Label, sold $264,152 worth of stock on February 3rd, 2011 and Gabrielle B. Toledano, EVP, HR, Corporate Services, sold $89,408 worth of stock on February 3rd, 2011. Shares of (NASDAQ:ERTS) have increased by 10.26% year-to-date.
Greg Zeschuk: World of Warcraft established the MMO standards
Co founder of BioWare Greg Zeschuk did a public Speaking at the DICE summit in Las Vegas yesterday. Here he confessed that World of warcraft has set the standards for any MMORPG. and that the developer’s own offering, Star Wars: The Old Republic, looks to it for “standards”. Furhtermore he doesn’t see SWTOR as a WoW-killer. The players will decide if SWTOR will become a succes: “It is a touchstone,” Zeschuk said of WoW, according to GamesIndustry. “It has established standards, it’s established how you play an MMO: “It is a touchstone,” Zeschuk told the audience. “It has established standards, it’s established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that’s pretty dumb. If you have established standards, WoW established them.” Zeschuk also admitted that it will be an “interesting challenge” to compete with…